Summer Happenings

So. it’s summer vacation now. which means, no classes and I’ve sitting on my ass all day for the last month or so. There are some kids at school, here for club activities, but not that many, so chance/funny encounters are kinda rare, and therefore there’s not too much to say.

Wednesday july 27^th

lol. Imari and dan just came over to ask me for my ipod speaker… (I use it to play the songs for my music lessons cuz it’s easier than burning cds) I guess they’re going to use it to play music to unbore themselves while they count bellmarks or something… still. It was kinda random and funny :p

lol. And now (2hrs later) Dan and Kota have just returned it. Dan said “thank you very much”, and then “very much” again, with a little bow, 3 more times while Kota giggled. I think they were looking for an excuse to stay here but had nothing to say. lol.

Friday july 29^th

I left about an hour early to go drop some stuff off at the BoE on Friday afternoon. School was really quiet, with no students and only about 3 other teachers in the whole school. So behold my surprise when, as I almost reach the teachers’ shoe locker room, I hear my name being screamed out and suddenly get attacked by a big yellow blob of human. I looked down at who was the little creature hugging me fiercely, and lo-and-behold, it was Shinobu! Honestly, I should’ve known because that was pretty much her exact behavior when she was still a student here. I realized that she’d popped out of the nurse’s office as Ayaka soon followed suit, and another girl whose name I can’t remember cuz I am a bad teacher. Only Ayaka was wearing a school uniform and the other two wore casual clothes, Shinobu’s being very very yellow. lol. She looked so cute and had cut her hair. They all had pretty much the same short chipped-bob haircut. we chatted a bit but I had to say goodbye quickly or I was gonna miss my train. As I was about to go, Shinobu grabbed my hand and looked at the inside of it. I had scribbled “BoE” on the inside to remind myself to go and explained to her what it meant. She showed my hand to Ayaka and went (in Japanese) “I thought it said BoA”. lol. we said goodbye and I was like “please come see me again” and Shinobu just stared at me blankly and looked to Ayaka and I shook my head and said “mata kite kudasai!” and Shinobu went “hai!!” and gave me a big serious bow. lol. Love that kid.

August 4^th

Atsuya #2 (I have 2 favorite Atsuyas in 2^nd grade… one is this genki little over achiever, and the other one is dumb as shit, but highly entertaining. This is the second one) is in the staffroom now. I think he’s been forced to do his history homework or something. He’s been sitting at the empty desk his front of me, twiddling his pen, tapping his fingers on the desk and alternatingly starring into space. lol. When he catches me looking at him, he gives me this dumb embarrassed grin and I just giggle. lol. Can’t help it, he’s just funny even to just look at, eheh.

August 5^th

awww… on my way out after school, I ran into Aoi (chibikko… last year’s speech contest kid) and her friend at the station. She was all dolled-up and dressed up super cute and had already started growing from a little kid into a woman. When she saw me and recognized me, she jumped into my arms and I just had such an inner “aaaaaawwww!” moment. She and her friend had gone shopping at AEON and now were waiting for her mom to pick them up. She seemed really happy. I couldn’t talk much cuz the train was coming soon, but I was so happy to see her ^_^

August 9^th

This morning on my way to school, some random lady doing her jogging (actually, I’ve seen her around before) stopped and started chatting to me. At first I thought she was just saying “good morning”, but no, she wanted to chat. She asked me if I was the English teacher (we were very near the school) and I said yes and she said I was very “nihongo jouzu” and asked where I was from, and then started babbling about how young and pretty I was. lol. She thought I was 21, bless her little soul. Oh well, that was an interesting encounter.

Now I get to school and Masaki – this tiny delicate ninensei boy – is sitting at the desk in front of me SEWING. lol. I’m guessing it’s a home-ec summer project, but it’s still rather funny. He’s concentrating so hard!! kawaii!!!

August 11^th

Today was weird. First, all the teachers had some special meetings somewhere outside of school, so the staffroom was COMPLETELY empty, except for Kyoto-sensei and the lunch lady and I all morning. Then in the afternoon, there was a stupid inter-school (with the two elementaries affiliated with our school) volleyball tournament for the teachers. In honor of that, all the lady teachers were going to lunch together. Now, I woulda been FINE just eating my diet-proof bento in the lonely staffroom and stay there all afternoon, reading a book, but no. Earlier in the week, Hasegawa sensei came over and asked me if I wanted to come to the v-ball game. In this case “asked” means “you can’t say no”. So of course I said sure and spent the rest of the week dreading it. She said I didn’t have to play but of course that didn’t happen either. while I was there, Koucho-sensei (the principal) very nearly physically forced me to play 2 GAMES… on the “shitty players side” (there were 2 fields). Lucky for me, the other team sucked even more than we did and kept giving us points by just sending their ball into the net, so it didn’t really involve too much actual physical activity. :p

Afterwards me and Yuka went for coffee downtown and we ran into Daisuke and his friends. His friends were from another school cuz I didn’t know them, and they were all staring at me like I was a crazy person as I walked over and snapped my fingers in Daisuke’s face for him to look up (he was fiddling with his bag or something). When he saw me he went “HEEEY!” and flashed his trademark huge smile at me. I asked him what he was doing here and he said he was doing something for a Visa (didn’t really understand) cuz he was going to Taiwan. I knew some of the kids from the baseball club were going so I said “oooh!” and he went (in English) “Yes! Because, I am very very good baseball player!” lol. So I gave him a high-five and wished him luck and we left. As we were walking off, Yuka was laughing at his whole behavior and English usage. She doesn’t know him cuz she teaches first grade only. She went “yeah, you’re lucky. Students love you” :p

Other than that, nothing much happened besides me teaching this year’s speech contest kid every other day. She has the most boring personality ever, and never says anything even when I try to initiate conversation. eh. I’m glad that’s over!

week of July 11th to 15th

Monday

1-7 went alright. funniest thing that I can remember that happened was, during the “running game” (I have 2 kids go against each other and they have to run to the board and circle the word I say), this kid Naoki, who’s a little bit “off”, just yelled out this like… battle cry or something, as he ran to the board, left and right looking for the good word, and he still ended up losing to the other kid. lol. Everyone was laughing. It was pretty funny.

Then I had Sentaku-class with 3-3 which was ok, just before I walked into class, I saw Ryouga who was talking to a friend and I went “Ryouga-chan! You’re not crazy today!” and went “yeah… tired!” and I said “good boy!” and left him to his friends teasing him cuz I had called him “-chan”. I love using that on my boys…. demeaning their masculinity is the funniest thing. eheh. Anyways, class went fine but we finished early and Shigeki-sensei just let them dick-around for like 20 minutes. Oh, one funny thing, during the song, at one point, I turned around and saw Shigeki-sensei trying to sing along and shaking his hips to the beat. Funniest. Thing. Ever. (he’s like 60)

After that I had the same lesson with 3-6, and they were just dead. I could get no reaction out of them, at all. Even Taisei was super quiet. meh. I know it’s hot, kids, but come on! Afterwards I had them play Pictionary with the left-over time, and they woke up a bit, but still. meh.

Back in the staffroom, I was pleasantly surprised to see that someone had turned the aircon down to 25C!! Technically, they’re not “allowed”. There’s no actual rule, but most places never put it any lower than 27C….

After school I ran into Nao and ended up walking with her all the way to the station. She’s so cute! and her English is getting really good ^_^ she told me she hadn’t been chosen for the speech contest (which of course, I already knew) and was a bit bummed, but she said that now she was gonna try and get a solo for the chorus contest in the fall. Good for her! She also said that she did choir outside of school, and when I asked what she was gonna do for summer vacation, she said “study!” lol. Then, randomly, as we’d almost reached the station, she went “aaah, I want a boyfriend!” and I said “me too!” and then asked her if there was a boy she fancied at school and she giggled and nodded, but then she wouldn’t tell me who he was because she was embarrassed and “he’s not cool”. eheh.

Tuesday

Aaah man, I’m so tired. 5 classes today and it’s SO hot. I have just finished my 4 morning classes, had lunch and finally can sit down. My feet actually hurt. I can’t remember last time that happened *sigh*

First period with 2-2 was a bit of a bore and nothing exciting happened. Then during 2^nd period with 2-1, the mini-gyaruo and the kid with grey hair kept giggling at me from across the room. Then, when I came over, grey-haired boy rushed to cover something he was drawing in his book. Probably something pornish again. I tried to get him to show it to me, but to no avail. At one point, I squat down beside him do ask him something and saw his gaze very unsubtly shift down into my cleavage. Eeeh… then he asked me “sensei… sonna fuku, suki?” (lit: teacher like these clothes) and I was really confused… did he mean do I like my clothes? does he like my clothes?” and so I’m like “…… yes?” and him and his friend just kinda go “huh….” wtf. That was weird. This is not the first time I’ve worn this shirt!! wtf?! Although I get the feeling that this class is gonna be the return of the pervs, version 2.0! lol.

Then I did the same lesson again with 2-3, and it was really fun, and after that I had sentaku class with 3-2. At the beginning of class Daisuke and Kota and Dan and Imari (you know, the 3-2 boy posse) came over and started chatting random bullshit at me that I forgot… I just remember that I heard Dan tell Daisuke that he should tell me that I had big boobs. Daisuke shook his head and went “Ero, ero! He is ero!!” lol (it means he’s a perv or something) and I just laughed and went, “oh, are you?” and he said “no, no, no!” lol. I said “you’re a good boy?” and he said “yes!” and flashed me his huge grin. Aww, I have no trouble believing him. Then Dan came back and pointed to some random kid and went “he is ero. number 1!” and I said “in this class?” and they all chimed, “yes!”, followed by “this class! this school! all over the world!!” in English. lol. The lesson itself was pretty uneventful though.

Eh, I thought 3-1 class was gonna be ok, but they were just dead, and who can blame them, really? 6^th period in this heat? Anyhow, when I was done with my lesson, there was about 20 minutes left and Shigeki-sensei told them they could do homework or whatever, and Kouki said “can we have some music?” which made me smile, but I put some on for them. After a while, Nichika, Seiya and some other boys came over to fuss over my ipod and ooh-ed and aah-ed cuz I had Big Bang songs on there. Apparently Nichika is a big Big Bang fan. Minami was like, “doesn’t he look like D-lite?” and I was like “huh?” (trying to remember which one D-Lite is, cuz honestly, besides G-Dragon and T.O.P. I really don’t know their names) and Kouki goes “Nichika, smile!” and he just kinda grinned, flashing his giant white teeth and I go “omg! He does!” lol. He’s way skinnier though… they went through about all the songs from them on the ipod, and then found the ones from the Korean drama “you’re beautiful” and were super surprised that I had them. Minami asked me which boy from the drama I thought was the hottest, but I’ve watched it almost a year ago so I really don’t remember, so I said “all of them!” later on, true to herself, Minami just randomly asked me if I drank alcohol. (I answered “yes”, cuz what else was I gonna say, really?) and then she asked me if I was “strong” (which is a question you always get from Japanese people… it refers to how much booze you can handle before getting drunk) and I said so-so. She said I must be strong cuz I was gaijin. lol. Then the bell rang. mwaha.

Wednesday

So apparently, from today until the end of the semester, we only have shortened classes, and only in the morning. That would be nice if it meant that I actually had less classes, but most my classes are in the morning anyways so it doesn’t really change anything.

I had 1-1 first period and all went well. The end of the lesson was having the kids practice “I don’t like”, which I enjoyed very much cuz I like bitching about stuff. On the way to class, I ran into a bunch of other kids heading to music class, and of course was followed by a chorus of “hello”s, except for Genki, who decided it would be funny to go “Nihao!” at me. He did it on the way back too. lol.

I guess I was having a bad day that day, cuz I totally forgot to write about the two other classes I had. oh well.

Thursday

When I showed up to class with 3-5, Ryohei had like a crown of little pine needles in his hair. wtf. Everybody was giggling at him and I told him he looked like a forest princess and he went “hai. sou desu” (that’s right). lol. He kept them in for the WHOLE class and only took them off at the end. lol.

When I walked into 1-5 second period, all the kids started squealing like excited little piglets. They were like “Vanessa, since you’re here, does it mean we’re not having a test?!?!” and indeed, apparently that’s what it meant. But I told them at the beginning of class that since they weren’t having a test, it meant they had to be “super super genki” and that cracked them up.

On the way to 3-4, these two girls started chatting with me and were really hilarious, even though the bell was gonna ring soon, they kept talking and talking… lol. one of them told me that my shirt was very sexy, and I was like “eh?” basically, there is a patch of see-through lace on the top back of my shirt… and I’m wearing a cami under… how is that sexy???

Anyhow, I was expecting class with 3-4 to be a pain, but unexpectedly, it went really well. Because they somehow got an extra lesson over all the other classes, I didn’t wanna prepare a whole other music lesson, so I thought we were just gonna play games. first I had them play bingo with all the new words we learned from the previous songs (on 30, they remembered the meaning of about 4…. :/) and after that, we played Pictionary and it was hilarious because all the “naughty” boys got REALLY into it, and at the end, I made this one question worth 3 points, and of course everybody’s hand shot off at the same time, and even the bell had rung and nobody cared. And Bad Ryota was yelling like a crazy person “me! me!” so I chose him but I told everyone on his team “you can’t help him!!” and so everybody got quiet and he yelled triumphantly “COOKING!!” while pointing at me (which was the correct answer) and I laughed and the 3 points bonus made their team win. Never seen anybody that happy to get a sticker. lol.

Friday

Finally it’s Friday! Man, I’m so tired this morning. But my first two periods went well and there’s only one more to go. During first period with 1-6, Yuka was having them practice “what do you drink?” and they had to answer “I drink ______” and one kid was like “nama biru!” (beer) lol. After that, every other kid came up with every kind of alcohol in the book… only in Japan… lol.

After class I went straight to 1-4 classroom, cuz the 1nensei building is apart from the rest of the school and there’s no point going back to the staffroom for 2 minutes and then going back there, but because I was really tired, I sat down at the teacher’s desk kinda slumped and started doodling on a paper. This one kid, who is a little bit weird (but has somehow taken a liking to me) comes over and goes “kyou, nanka, genki nai yo ne” (you aren’t feeling well today aren’t you?) and I just thought it was the cutest thing. I told him I was just very sleepy and he nodded and left. lol. Then during the rest of the class, whenever some kids would notice the little doodle I’d left on the desk, they would go “hey, who drew this?” and another kid would go “Vanessa did” and the other kid would go “chou umai jan!” (it’s really good!) which made me giggle, because I’m really not that good at drawing, but it’s always nice to hear. eheh.

During 4^th period, I did fortune-telling with 2-5, and nearly ALL the fortunes involved Asai-sensei in some way, which made the whole thing hilarious. I was like “wow, he’s really popular!” til Mizushima-sensei told me he was their homeroom teacher… :p Oh well, it could’ve happened. I still think he’s hot :p

During lunchtime I eat lunch in the staffroom at my desk. I usually read a book while I eat. Just before I was about to start eating, Taisei (from 3-6) and that kid with the floppy hair walked in and started talking with Yabe-sensei. When they turned to leave they looked at me, Taisei went “nani kore?”, babbled some more stuff that I didn’t really understand, and then left, or tried to leave, as Yabe-sensei told them they should try and talk to me in English and they were like “no no no… we’re not good at English!” (in Japanese) and I’m like “what are you talking about? You’re like the best one in your class!” and Yabe said “really?” and then forced them to come back. Taisei walked up “shyly” (which was hilarious considering I know he’s not shy at all” and went “what’s this?” pointing at my book. I gave it to him and he went “suge” (wow) a few times, flipped it over, tried to read a few words from it and gave it back to me shaking his head. I told him “it’s easy English” (cuz it was a young-adult book) and he went “oh?” and then he said thank you and they left. lol.

week of July 4th to 8th

Monday

urgh. Today. I feel like I’m sitting in a pool. Fully clothed. Except the water is warm and it’s not fun. I am seriously going to start complaining LOUDLY about this lack of aircon. It’s just inhumane. Also, I really don’t wanna be here this morning, for a slew of reasons, and I am grumpy as fuck. This is gonna be a FUN day. :(

1^st period sucked. Well, it was alright actually, but I was just in such a cranky mood that didn’t leave the whole time even though kids were fine. One funny thing at the end was, the kids were practicing reading bits of the book, and one of the dialogues was “what’s this? It’s a shogi board”. So I was wandering around, pointing to kids and going “what’s this?” and I did it to this one kid (pointed to him and went “what’s this?”) and he looked at me and went “it’s God”. lol. You’re alright, kid. You’re alright.

Then second period with 2-4 put me in a better mood. they had changed the seating arrangements and Masaya was now sitting way at the back in the middle row, and he was oddly well-behaved and sweet… well, til the end of the class when he was like “Vanessa, you got fat!” and poked me in the belly, and I replied “I KNOW!! Stop telling me! You’re gonna make me cry!” and his face dropped (I think he only understood the word “cry”) and he was like “don’t mind! don’t mind!” (it’s japanglish for “it doesn’t matter” or “don’t worry about it”) aaah, silly boy. Then he said I should diet (and I told him I already was) and he told me that we should practice for undoukai (sports day) together. lol. That made me laugh.

Then I had class with 3-1, and they were all dead, and my activity bombed cuz it was too easy and I totally didn’t care. Luckily, Hasegawa-sensei saved me and made it a bit more interesting. Before class, the girls were talking together and they came over and started asking me if I knew any scary stories. I said I didn’t and Nao was like “don’t you have any scary stories in Canada??” and I said that we did but I couldn’t remember any. I also told them they should watch SUPERNATURAL. Because it was full of scary stories, AND hot men. lol.

Tuesday

aircon is on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! omg, happy day!!!! If only I didn’t have 5 classes today…. *sigh* oh well. oooh, fun fact, I just turned around and noticed that the hot P.E. teacher is wearing polka-dots shorts today. Had to repress the urge to laugh out loud. Seriously. What the fuck.

Soo!! I’m such a sneaky bastard, I managed to talk my way out of going to 4^th period. eheh. well, it was a bit of a pain, cuz the schedule changing to A-week for a day only meant that I was supposed to go to sentaku class, and I just told Mizushima-sensei I hadn’t planned anything cuz it was “out of pattern” and he was like “please stay here”. and I am glad to oblige. Normally I wouldn’t mind, but 5 classes a day sucks, and so I’m quite happy to have this break.

All my classes this morning went well. First I had 2-2, followed by 2-1, and then 2-3. 2-3 was really energetic! I spent the first 5 minutes of class with 2-1 arguing with Ryo about WHY he had 4 bags hanging off his desk (and why he was so messy)… but he couldn’t understand my question, so much less answer me, and thus it took like 5 whole minutes for him to tell me that he had extra bags because of club… in 2-3, I tried to teach “Whats’ up?” to Kazunari, and by the end of my explanation, the whole class was super quiet and one kid went “iiii naaaa… Kazunari, you got Vanessa’s attention all to yourself” and he was kinda embarrassed. mwaha. They really enjoyed playing the game though. I’m happy when I do activities and kids get into it ^_^

LOL! Minami is such a cracker!! I think I just had the best lesson with 3-1 ever. They’d been pestering me (mostly Minami) to do the Justin Bieber song, so I fetched the old posters and reprinted some papers, and off I went. First of all, when I showed up to class, Ikuto (the weird kid) got up from his seat and came over to me with his arms stretched wide, going “neeeeeeeeeeee Vanessaaaaaaaaaaa tuskaretaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa” and gave me a hug. LOL. It’s pretty hilarious because I think that is the only time a kid actually hugged me of their own volition. Usually, they kinda reach in for one and then shy back. lol. I don’t mind hugging you, kiddy, as long as you don’t try to make a grab at my tits, all is well. then when we started the lesson and I started the “listening” activity, I had to shush Minami several times because she would just exclaim and comment every time I added a new information “eeeeeeeeeeeh?! Justin Bieber likes chess?!?!? sugoiiiii!!! kakkoiiii!!!!” lol. Anyways, it was really funny, and much better than a class of zombies who don’t participate. Then, during the song, when it goes “baby, baby, baaaaby…” Minami exclaimed “eh? is he saying ‘akachan, akachan’?” and everybody just burst out laughing at her and I explained “in English saying “baby” is like saying “honey”. It means his girlfriend” and she went “aaaaah….” lol. After that they made me play the Simple Plan song that they didn’t get to hear last time (cuz I’d forgotten to charge my ipod and it died) and I was kinda happy they still wanted to hear it. Then, we just kinda dicked around until the bell. Minami went “nee nee… kono postaa, chodai?” (can you give me that poster?) and I went “sure” cuz I was just gonna throw it away anyways (they’re just laminated color copies from the computer) and then some other kids went “EHHH!!!” and Nichika and Nami fought for the other 2 smaller pictures. lol. Then, being the silly girl that she is, Minami asked me to “sign” the picture with Justin Bieber’s name, so I obliged, and then I had to do the same for both other pics. Hilarious.

After classes, I ended up staying at school a bit later than usual, cuz one of my old fangirls, Hana, was coming to visit. Actually, I don’t think I’ve mentioned Hana in this blog before, because she left halfway through the year, before summer vacation last year, to move with her father to Canada! and about 2-3 months before the big move, she started sticking to me like a freaking magnet, begging me to help her with English (and even French at one point, though she gave that up fairly quick) and making love declarations to me at all hours. She was friends with Miho, my #1 fangirl, and so whenever the both of them were around, it was just a big Vanessa love-fest. lol She even told me one time, that she wished she could be a boy, because then she could be my boyfriend, and would get really angry when I would say I didn’t have a boyfriend and say “that’s impossible!!!” lol. Well anyhow, she was a sweet kid nonetheless. When she left for Canada, we exchanged emails sporadically, and recently she mailed me to say that she was coming back to Japan for the summer. Last week, she mailed me to say that she would be coming to school this Tuesday, so would I please stay until 4:30 to meet her. haha. Well anyhow, she showed up around 4:20 and attacked me with a hug. she had her old friend Aria in tow (Aria is sooooo freakin’ tiny! she could pass for a 7^th grader easy) along with a friend of hers from Canada who was Chinese, and an older woman whom I – at first – thought was her mother, but it turned out being the other girl’s mom cuz they launched into this Chinese speech at one point, baffling me. Anyways, we chatted for a good 10 minutes, her English was nearly perfect as she understood everything I was saying, and poor Aria was standing there not getting a word… Then she said bye and went off to chat with Kyouto-sensei. It was nice to see her! It looks like she’s pretty happy. She told me finals were HARSH! lol. Well yes, guess what, in Canada, you actually have to study to pass!! : p

Wednesday

Today is Wednesday so I come early for the weekly meeting. And as I’ve mentioned before, sometimes students see me coming into the school grounds and yell at me from the windows. This morning it was Daisuke from 3-2, waving at me with his body almost halfway through the window (I thought he was gonna fall) and I yelled at him “you crazy!!” and he went “what? what? I don’t listen!” He meant “I can’t hear you”, but it made me smile. Today is gonna be a good day. Except that there’s no aircon… *cries*

First class with 1-1 went fine, but then at the end of class, Aoshima-sensei asked me if I could come to 5^th period to do the time lesson with 1-7, because their class with me has been getting cut for the last two weeks and they haven’t done it. I think it’s the first time ever anyone asks me to make-up for a lesson that they missed… how weird. I’m kinda cranky about it though cuz today is my only day this week where I have only 3 classes. fff… I was looking forward to having the afternoon off. buuut, I guess not.

Then I had class with 2-1 and the kids were like “eh?! Vanessa again??” and Ayumu started a little chant that went like this “kyo Vanessa… kino mo Vanessa… everyday Vanessa”. lol. (the first part means today is Vanessa, yesterday was Vanessa too…) then I was just dazed and bored for the whole 30 minutes of Shigeki-sensei’s lesson, and at one point, I let out this huge yawn and the whole row of kiddies next to the windows turned around to look at me and grin. eheh. Afterwards we played battleship, and I played with Yuma, the little kiddie who is a bit weird and often just draws on his desk for the whole class. He was concentrating so hard while we played though! It was cute. But he was really slow and we didn’t have time to finish. At the end of class. I had to explain (again) to Rei and Ryo that “winner” and “weiner” were two different words, and then they were trying really hard to say “winner” properly going “I am a WINNER” and I was like “no, you are a weiner” :p lol. I am so easily entertained.

One of the teachers in the staffroom just told Hiroko (3-3) “you’re the student council president, you can’t wear your hair in a bun!” I’m sorry, what?!?! she said “dango dame da ne” dango is like a little ball… so I’m assuming that’s what you call it when you kinda lazily flip your hair kinda halfway… either way, why is in wrong to wear your hair like that?!? Japanese are so weird…

In happier news though, aircon is back on! <3

Class with 1-3 sucked. Well, it was fine, but could they have been any LESS genki? sheesh… seriously. And also I asked Hasegawa-sensei about the auditions for the speech contest and she told me it was AFTER 5^th period, and not during, so I have no excuse to get out of teaching an extra class with Aoshima-sensei. Pooh. There goes all my free time today.

Aww… so as I rushed in to class with 1-7, Aoshima-sensei was in the middle of a little speech to the kids that pretty much went along those lines “Vanessa is supposed to have free time now, but she’s coming here just for you cuz we haven’t had classes together in a long time. So let’s be really genki for her, ok?” and the kids all went “HAAIIIII!!!” super loudly. bless my heart. Well, 1-7 is a good group anyways, and it has my wee little baby Eitaro in it, so it went fine. :p

Around 3pm I had to listen to the speech contest “auditions”. There is a speech contest for English in my town every year, and it’s usually my job to “train” whichever poor sucker gets picked to do it during the summer holidays. It sucks because it’s boring, the chosen kids usually have no personalities, and most of all, they don’t stand a chance because the winners every year are always hafu kids with perfect English. But whatever, this year there were 3 girls who wanted to be “it”. Kasumi, Sae and Nao. Honestly, I wanted Nao to win, only because I like her and spending most of the summer vacation together would be way more fun, but we ended up choosing Kasumi cuz she was slightly better than the other two. and I do say “slightly”. Actually, I had to fight with the other teachers to get them to pick her, because her pronunciation was the most “Japanesey” and they don’t like that. They don’t understand that having an “American” accent for a Japanese kid is nearly impossible, and that that’s not what they are going to be judged on. meh. Let the fun begin… :/

Thursday

Today is quite nice actually. It’s raining, and it’s humid, but it’s only about 24C and with a nice breeze, so even though a/c is not on, I’m not sweating like a pig.

1^st period with 1-2 went well. Yuka has them do silly chants on a cd at the beginning of every class, and today was a new one and the beat was really funny, like an attempted rap, and there was a little “huh-huh-huh” pause in the middle, which was hilarious and both me and the kids kept cracking up. also, while the kids were writing their bingo cards, I was chatting with this boy and girl who were sitting next to each other at the front of the class and they were both very cheerful, and at one point they started going to each other “this is Naoya. She is very cute” in English, (Naoya is a boy) and then he said “This is Yuri, she is not cute” and they kept on insulting each other in their very very limited English, and it was just hilarious. Tetsuya’s brother was still grumpy. I really dunno what’s wrong with him….

Oooh, I was supposed to have 2-3 just now at 4^th period, but since it’s the second time this week cuz of the weird Tuesday schedule change, Mizushima-sensei just asked me not to come. Sweet!

Lol. It’s after lunch time and a bunch of the 1^st year boys are standing near the entrance to the staffroom, and the door is open and I can hear them going “Vanessa… Vanessa… Vanesssssssa…” and I turned around to look at them and they giggled and left. wtf.

Aawww, afternoon went really well! First I had class with 1-2, and I swear half the boys were on crack, and I asked them “what did you eat in kyushoku, crazy-boy pan?” and they just thought that was the funniest thing in the world. These two boys at the front, Akira and Shogo, kept giggling to themselves and I went to pester them a bit. They wouldn’t stop laughing so I wrote “CRAZY” on Akira’s face in orange marker. He totally let me!!! lol. Teaching in Japan is so much fun. I get away with a lot of dumb shit I wouldn’t back home, eheh.

Then 6^th period was 3-6, and for some reason they weren’t sleepy at all, although I suspect it’s cuz they’d had swimming class just before. One of the boys refused to turn on the fan cuz it was “cold”. I wanted to punch him. Luckily, a bunch of other students were all for it, so we turned it on. Rina got all excited cuz we had the same hello kitty towel (in Japan, in summer, it gets so freakin’ gross that you must carry a small towel at all times just to wipe your face… fun, eh?) and Taisei was freakin’ hyper and kept commenting at EVERYTHING that Hasegawa-sensei said. Then we played the music-dice-game where I would ask them questions that started with “tell, show, or teach me” something. When Taisei’s turn came up, since he’d been such a cracker all class long, I asked him “tell me a joke” and he went “eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhh?!?!!!!”, you have to understand that this is kinda hard for their level of English. Then he went “ok. I love you.” and I laughed. Fair enough, boy, fair enough. That was funny. Then I asked the last boy “teach me how to write my name in kanji” and what they (cuz the whole class was helping too) came up with was “horse”, “cat”, and then some kanji that read “SA” but didn’t really have any meaning. Teppei and a bunch of the other boys kept cracking up cuz the first two kanji together read as something else (I forgot now) and apparently that was a funny word, but they refused to tell me, so I think it must’ve been a bad word.

On my way back, I was walking down the hallway and I hear “hello!” I turn around but there are no kids behind me. Then I hear it again, two voices “hello, hello!” I’m all wtf and peer into the nearest classroom but the lights are off and nobody’s in there. I continue walking and Dan, Kota, and another boy’s faces pop up from the second door of that classroom I was looking into and are all laughing and waving at me. I try to open the door to their classroom, but it’s locked. “Why are there only 3 of you in there?” I ask, and they start laughing, and Kota goes “we are magicians”. So I say, ok, show me a magic trick. And then they did some kind of drumroll thing, and Dan stood there sideways, pretending to pick his nose. lol. At that time the rest of the class started trooping in, and Daisuke started yelling “hello” and “crazy girl” at me, so I took it as my cue to leave… lol.

Friday

Argh. This morning is horrible. It feels like being in a swamp outside, and in the classroom it’s like being in the shower fully dressed. The aircon was on first thing in the morning in the staffroom, but as I have class all morning, what does it matter really? Also, I didn’t get much sleep last night and my contacts were shitting in my eyes all through first period. Which didn’t go all that well, might I add.

Just before class, I spotted Ryouga and another of the baseball boys “playfully” bullying Takaya. Takaya is also one of the 3^rd year baseball boys, but he still looks like he’s 10. He’s super tiny and short. Anyways, I think they were trying to “kancho” him (stick their fingers up his ass, gun like… don’t ask… Japanese children are weird… although it’s way more likely to happen in elementary school than JHS, but nevermind) and he saw me and he went “Vanessa! Make them stoop!!!” in Japanese, and so being the bully that I am, I just smacked Ryouga on the ass with my teacher’s bag. Takaya escaped, and classed started, but Ryouga spent at least the first 5 minutes of class bitching about how I was a violent teacher, I’d hit him and blah blah blah. I just laughed at him, but later in the class, Hasegawa-sensei asked me “Did you hit Ryouga? He is a sensitive boy, so it’s dangerous!” and I felt super bad (although Ryouga, sensitive? really?) I wanted to argue, but it was really quiet and all the kids were listening so I said I’d explain the situation later. Anyways, class was really boring, they were just dead, and even the game failed to rouse them much. Bad Ryota was absent though, so that was one less thing I had to worry about. as soon as the bell rang, I went over to Ryoga and asked him “did I hurt you? are you ok? I’m really sorry if I hurt you, I didn’t mean to” and he just laughed and said he was totally fine, and Takaya laughed too and said “awww, the teacher’s worried about you!” and they ran off and I just shook my head. wtf, Hasegawa-sensei… he is not a delicate boy and I was right and you made me feel bad for nothing. Anyways, after that I explained to her the situation. that I was just “saving” one kid, and hadn’t meant to hit him hard, and she went “ok… I see…” so I dunno if anything’s gonna come out of that. I hope it’s all good :/

Anyways, I was grumpy about it, and about the heat and everything else, so I just decided to fuck off 2^nd period. That’s right, I am ditching. Well, to be fair, 2^nd period is with 2-2, with Shigeki-sensei and I’ve already seen that class this week because of schedule changes, but he is so old and confused he probably won’t even notice that I’m supposed to be there. Usually he doesn’t know that we have class until I go tell him. And if god forbid he does notice, I’ll just say that I was confused cuz of the schedule changes and pretend to be a dumb gaijin. Fuck it, everybody is allowed to have bad days and nobody else teaches periods 1 to 4 back to back. meh.

3^rd period was reading test with 3-3, which was completely uneventful except for the fact that I seem to have caught a cold and kept sniffling terribly (which made the kids laugh at me) then it was 2-5 with Mizushima-sensei, who had forgotten I was coming (see what I said before?) and then let me start my game way too early, so that everyone was done playing it 10 minutes before the bell and I had to improvise. I felt so tired and listless and sneezy though, that I did fuck all and just chatted Mizushima-sensei the whole time the kids played battleship. Only in Japan would kids totally do the activity as expected with nearly no supervision from the teachers, eheh.

on the way back I saw Bad Ryota who had mysteriously reappeared… with bandages around one of his feet and arm :/ I dunno what happened to him, but he seemed otherwise ok. I also ran into Kazunari, who was chatting with Seiji and I went “what’s up!” and he just looked at me all clueless so I had to explain all over again the whole “what’s up/not much” scenario… *shakes head*

I’ve also been informed that this afternoon is the ceremony to choose the new student council president (from the 2^nd year kids) but I already asked Kyoto-sensei for nenkyuu to leave at 2pm and it’s been approved so I will miss it. Oh well, it’ll be a surprise when I get back…

til then, enjoy the weekend!!

week of june 27 to july 1st

Monday

I had no classes today, and because it was SO hot (and there is still no aircon in the staffroom) I just moved as little as possible. So I didn’t encounter many students.

Tuesday

Back to the grind! Supposed to have 5 classes today, but thankfully, I only have 4 cuz Mizushima-sensei cancelled one.

1^st period was 2-2 with Shigeki, and it went fine and the kiddies enjoyed the game. 2^nd period was 2-1 and Ryo & Rei were acting crazy again but it was fun. Ayumu was surprisingly quiet, and the most troublesome ones where mini-gyaruo and his friend in the back. They wouldn’t shut up. A fun thing that happened was that, when I went over to watch Ayumu’s team, the little boy sitting next to him (I forget his name…) was trying to put the elastic in his hair… so I went “give it to me” and gave him a little front ponytail. lol. It was hilarious and he was soooo cute!!! Even the girls on the team were squealing “kawaiii!!” and he kept it like that for like a good 5 minutes. lol. He’s one of the minis. At the end of the class, Wataru came over and quietly helped me take my pictures off the board. he is sooooooo cute!!! XD

Class with 3-2 was really good. I wanna go “yappari” I love this class best. Even though they were all obviously super tired cuz of the heat, they participated and tried hard. At the beginning of the class, Daisuke came over to chat and showed me his face and went “oh no!” He’d gotten a sunburn on his cheeks and nose and the skin was all peeling and pink stuff. I forget the word he used but I was like “peel, peel. Your skin is peeling” and he went “yes, yes”. And then he went on “lady gaga!” and I’m like “no, we’re not listening to lady gaga today” and he goes, “no no… here, Japan!”. “Lady Gaga’s in Japan?”. “No! cry!” me: “huh? lady gaga is crying? why?” and he goes “tohoku!” lol. I guess lady gaga made a video for the victims of the tohoku earthquake or something… anyways, he seemed to be touched by it and I thought it was funny.

6^th period was class with 3-1. It was actually my FIRST TIME to have a music lesson with them because their class was always getting cut cuz of the schedule changes. Minami was a bit bummed because I wasn’t doing Justin Bieber, but she got over it. They seemed to enjoy the listening part, giggling like little idiots when Shigeki-sensei said that the translation for “I can’t stand it” was “gaman dekinai”. Now, that’s actually fairly accurate, but in Japanese, when you say that, it kinda has a sexual connotation. Like boys will say that when they are making out with a girl or something and they wanna have sex… it’s kinda like “I can’t hold it” or something… Anyways, I forgot to mention it, but every single class giggled at this. Then, when we got to the song, it started playing for like 20 seconds before my ipod died on me. I had stupidly forgotten to charge it this morning so it was kinda inevitable, but I felt kinda bad since it was their first lesson and they didn’t even get to listen to the song! but Minami yelled at me “Don’t mind!”

Oh yeah, before class, Nami was standing outside the classroom, looking dazed as usual (what is up with that girl these days?!) and I asked her “what’s up?” and she told me that she wasn’t very genki because she didn’t have a boyfriend anymore (she was dating Dan, remember? my black fan-boy with the hair?) and she asked me if I had a boyfriend and I said no and we commiserated together. I think she’s gonna be another one of “those”… like Miho last year, and Maki before that… always worried about boys, aah, poor thing.

Oh hey, btw, I have chalk girls this year! They are two 3^rd year girls, and they’ve been coming up to me during cleaning time to get chalk for about a month now, I think. (They showed up in the staffroom and I was the only one there… now they come straight to me) Anyways, they come over “Vanessa, white chalk please!” and so I get up to go over to where the chalks are, and as we’re walking one of them asks me “Vanessa, boyfriend?” and I’m like “no no no…” and they say “Paul wa?”… see, yesterday, a friend of mine (named Paul) came to teach a lesson to the 3^rd years because he teaches high school and a bunch of teachers from various high schools were coming to do demo lessons to entice the kids to go to their school… he also happened to tell them how old I was! damn him! But never mind that, I said “no no, we’re just friends” and they went like “yeaaah, he said that too…” looking all disappointed. lol. Then they said, “but we saw the purikura of your boyfriend last year”… and so I replied that people break up, you know! I dunno why the kids are so interested in my love life…

Wednesday

At the morning meeting earlier, Kyoto-sensei made a little speech about the aircon, and told us that he knew it was hot but that we should “mou chotto gaman shite ne” (bear it a little bit longer). Well fuck, how long is “a little bit more”?! *grumbles*

First period was with 1-1 and it went well. I really like this class. Ayaka’s brother (I should really remember his name) was especially cute and genki, along with the usual

On the way to class with 1-3, I ran into Minami, who proudly told me that she’d been chosen as one of the group leaders for Sports day. It’s a big deal, and usually mostly boys get chosen. Basically, the whole school will be split into 6 groups (1-1, 2-1, 3-1 together… 1-2, 2-2, 3-2 together, and so on) and they have sports competitions all day, and a “cheering” choreography… and each group has a “leader” and it’s a big deal. Anyways, I gave her a high-five and told her I was proud.

Class with 1-3 was a pain. They were dead and stupid. I dunno if it was the heat that was making them stupid, but how hard is it to say “3 o’clock” in English, really? For fuck’s sake….

Right after that, I had class with 1-2, which was enjoyable, and the kids were much more genki (except for the one I think is related to Tetsuya and Tatsuya… he was being a little dick). At the end of the class, this one kid at the front, Kengo, was pulling stunts and the kids around him told me “he is Lady Gaga”. And then Yuka showed up and she said the same thing. She said “he is Lady Kengo.” and I’m like “you can’t call him lady, he’s a boy!” so I whipped out a bunch of random silly names til I came up with “Mister Gogo” lol. And they all loved it and she promised to call him that from now on…

Thursday

Fuck it’s hot today… well, again. Actually, it’s not as hot as yesterday, but more humid. I don’t have classes until 4^th period today because Shigeki-sensei is absent (he’s at the hospital for some reason… for tests and stuff) today. I am NOT complaining because I am supposed to have 5 classes today.

lol. Domoto-sensei just came over as I was just staring at the screen, looking like a limp noodle, and he stopped in front of my desk and gave me the usual “good morning!” with his big dorky smile. That’s probably the only English words he knows. Anyhow, he was holding this big laminated paper in his hand and started fanning me with it! going “atsui desu ne” (it’s hot isn’t it) and my reply was a pained “atsui yo!” with pleading eyes that I hoped expressed my desire for aircon… anyhow. It was just so random that he started fanning me…. he left like 5 seconds later…

Class with 3-4…. well…. first of all, you KNOW that’s not my favorite class to teach, but today was worst than usual. Everybody was just dead from the heat – the baseball boys most of all, who were all passed out on their desks. I can’t be mad at them for it cuz it really is fucking hot and it’s cruel and inhumane to expect us to work (and kids to study) in these conditions. Plus, the kids had club yesterday after school, and it was super sunny and 35C+ and the baseball kids always get worked the hardest, and I just felt so bad for them. Most entertaining thing that happened was me drawing a little heart on Ryouga’s face while everybody else watched and giggled and he totally did not wake up. He had to be shoved awake when we did aisatsu (greeting) at the end. lol.

Class with 1-5 went really well, but there were a bunch of parents and little grade 6 kiddies prowling the hallways and popping in and out of class, which was annoying. Then I had class with 2-6, which also went well. The funny bit was when I asked 2 kids to come up and demo the game with me, nobody volunteered and Mizushima-sensei picked these two kinda shy boys to come up, and their responses were just so funny and delayed, everybody cracked up, but they were actually pretty good little assistants. Everybody was just dying from the heat though, and this class doesn’t seem to get as much “wind” as the others, cuz it’s in the corner of the building and the fans are in weird positions… anyways..

Oh yeah, something funny did happen earlier. I think when I was on my way to class for 3-4. The kids from 3-2 were all coming down the stairs (and I was going up) to go to P.E. or something, and some of the boys were walking down 3-by-3 taking the whole length of the staircase. Dan was right in front of me and I kept going up thinking “he’ll move”, but he didn’t and then he parked in front of me, one or two steps above, making this gesture, pointing pretty much from his crotch to my face, back-n-forth, going “my way! my way!” I was kinda confused for a while, but I’m not sure if he meant anything sexual by it… Anyways, I told him I was the teacher so he had to move, and he kept going “my way! my way!” but finally moved, while I chuckled up the stairs. lol. What’s his deal.

Friday

Thank god it’s Friday! This week has been so horrible and hot. It’s a bit cooler today, but mostly due to the fact that it’s not sunny. Oh and I also finally learned why we are not getting aircon… apparently it’s because, since the renovations of the school, the 1^st year teachers’ room doesn’t have aircon, and it wouldn’t be fair to them if the rest of us had it. Supposedly, they are supposed to fix that? Eventually? Fuck. What do I care about fair?? They can come work in here… *sigh*

Anyways, today I have 3 classes, all in the morning. Not really up to it. 1^st and 2^nd period were 1-6 and 1-4, and they both went well, and mini-kid Hideki decided he was having a good day today and wasn’t grumpy. lol. I have to stop myself from going “aaaaaawww!” every time I see him, cuz he’s too freakin adorable.

Last class of the day was 2-5 and it went very well. I felt a bit bad showing them pictures of amazingly delicious-looking food just before lunch, but what can you do?

So. I’m sorry if it seems nothing much is happening these days… it’s just so hot that I think nobody has the energy to be funny. Now on that note… TGIF, bitches!

Week of June 20 to 24

Monday

1^st thing in the morning, I had to record the 3^rd year listening test with Hasegawa-sensei. Nothing too exciting.

Second period was 2-4 and I was kinda dreading it but Masaya was actually quite well behaved today. Wonder if anything happened or if he just had enough of me ignoring him. On the way to class, I saw some 3^rd year boys (Koudai and Kota) climbing up the stairs sloooowly, holding their backs like they were little old men. I asked one of them what was wrong and he went “oshiri itaiiiiii….” (my butt hurts) and kept on moaning. lol. I don’t wanna know what they did in P.E. class… :/

After that I had a reading test with 3-1, which was fine, and sometimes hilarious. I was surprised that Minoru (this dorky kid who used to get bullied) did the whole thing flawlessly and I gave him a perfect score. I suspect him of going to juku, or be getting special eikaiwa lessons or something… he didn’t use to be that good… in other matters, Minami, Nao (I always call her “Mao”!!) and I spent most of the break discussing piercings (again) lol. Oh and at the end of class, Minami asked me what was my next class and I said “break”. She then asked me “what do you do when you have no class?” and I told her I slept. Her eyes went wide and she went “majiiii?!!” lol. I love that she is so gullible… then I said no, I drink coffee and work on my computer. :p

In the hallway, the two girls in charge of English for 3-2 caught up to me and there was a very confusing conversation about me having to go there next class. When I finally understood that they wanted me to go there NOW, I told them they should talk to mr. Mizushima because it wasn’t on my schedule. They thought that since our sentaku class had been cuz last week (cuz of tests), I would come this week. honestly, I wanted to, cuz I love that class, but I just wanted my chair and my coffee at that point… if I had known in advance, I might’ve said yes (and Mizushima probably wouldn’t have minded) but I played the lazy ALT for the day. There you have it.

So, hum, yeah, I just went down from 2 to 1. Apparently… schedule changes. I have stopped caring. Eh. Off I go to my only class of the day then… for a reading test… EXCITING!!

Tuesday

This morning is horrible. I mean, yesterday was pretty humid too, but since I’d had a good night’s sleep, it wasn’t so bad at school. My aircon unit at home is OLD and completely busted, and it only works when it feels like it… apparently last night it didn’t feel like it because it kept blowing room temperature air at me, and so I slept horribly and woke up all sticky. I shiver to think at what’s gonna happen when it actually gets HOT (on top of just humid) and it makes me wanna cry… of course, there is no A/C at school, so I am stuck here in my chair, sweating.

When I got here this morning, there was a not on my desk from Hasegawa sensei, saying that our 5^th period class with 3-2 was cancelled. So I’m going from 3 to 2 classes today. Let the fun begin!

Aahh… *big sigh* things are just not going my way this week. Class went fine, and most kids did okay on the test, but then I finished early and came back into class and the JTE was giving them a pop-quiz or something, and I noticed Kazuma was just sitting as far away from his paper as he could, not writing. I went to poke him to work, and in my wake, the teacher went over to scold him and I knew it just made him more annoyed. It made me wonder if he’s like that in his other classes as well, or just English cuz he doesn’t understand. I think it might be the latter. I wish I could help him. so I went to suggest (like I do every year…) to Hasegawa-sensei if we could set up some sort of program to help the weaker kids, cuz they just can’t catch up in this system (unless they go to juku) and she’s like “yeah, sounds nice, but we can’t force them, and they have club after school”. *sigh* CAN’T you force them? You’re teachers!! What’s more important, club? or kids’ grades? Of course, club is more important, right? :/

Anyways, ran into Daisuke on the stairs and he went “ha! ha!” at me. lol. So I just repeated it to him, and he paused, and instead of spewing his usual “you’re a crazy girl!” he went “long time no see!” and it just made me smile. Indeed, because of schedule changes and stuff, I haven’t seen his class for about 2 weeks now. cutie! ^_^

Just ran into some 3^rd year boys down the stairs (that pretty one on the student council, and the one with the freckles… although fuck me if I can remember their names…) and one went “hello!” and the other went “harro” and the one who said it wrong said to the other “heeello janakute, harro ja…” (it’s harro, not hello) and it just cracked me up so I turned around to correct them… lol. Freckle-boy’s hair was all wet and so I asked him if they were coming back from swimming class, which put pretty-boy in stitches, “no, no! not swim! P.E.! P.E.!” apparently playing dodgeball was intense for that kid. I reiterate… Japanese P.E. classes = scary!!

Wednesday

This morning, I am not feeling so good. in fact, I would have actually called in sick (I almost never do, even with migraines, if that gives you an idea) but since the BoE said they’d send someone to look at my (broken) aircon this morning, I figured I had best not be there (lying sick in bed half-naked) when they came. So I dragged my sorry ass to school. 1^st period was supposed to be 1-1, but apparently there is a meeting for all the 1^st years during that period, so no class. I was SO thankful, you can’t even imagine. I came back to the staffroom, sat down and held my head in my hands with my eyes closed. til I couldn’t stay up anymore and I just lied my head down on my arms right on my desk. Bear in mind that the staffroom was still full of people, and no one said anything for a good long while, bout 20 minutes in fact, when the nurse came over to ask if I was ok, and Hasegawa-sensei said I would have to give the reading test without her during second period. Why? Apparently Kazuma (yes, mr. I’m-always-sleeping) didn’t come home last night, and now they found out where he is and they’re going to fetch him… eeeeh…

So I ended up going home after 2^nd period. I was in such bad shape… I couldn’t stand up cuz I was so dizzy, then if I sat down I got queasy, so I got back up again… getting through the reading test was horrible – I’m pretty sure the kids noticed there was something wrong with me, and even though I finished about 10 minutes before bell, Hasegawa-sensei told me to go home. So I went down chasing Aoshima-sensei to tell him that I wouldn’t be in class and only found him just before the period started, and he seemed a bit startled, but said ok.

On the way I ran into Manaka, this little 2^nd year girl, who is so tiny and delicate, but I know she has ALL the boys in the year under her finger. lol. Like, she bullies them like no other and could probably kick all their asses. Anyways, recently, she’s started telling me I’m so “kawaii” every time she runs into me. It’s kinda funny. and that time as well, she was walking next to me and as I’m feeling like death and just wanna crumple on the ground and cry, she tells me again that I’m so pretty. Aaah, bless them.

Also funny thing that happened was running into a group of 3^rd year boys on the way back, and Dan going out of his way to say “hello!” to me, but raising his arm and flexing his muscles in front of my face. As dead as I felt, I just could stop laughing. Also, it’s like the 3^rd time today that he’s come over to say hi (exaggeratedly) to me. Something’s up.

Thursday

Somehow, a miracle happened and I am better today. Thank god!!! There was a morning meeting first up, which I knew about because someone had kindly written on the schedule board that yesterday was “asauchiawase NASHI” in big red marker and underlined it, and it said that there was one today. Apparently, there is also one tomorrow, which is lame.

Anyways, because everyone is having tests, I should have the whole day free, but I don’t because somehow the 1^st years don’t have tests, and anyways, the rest of the students have classes in the afternoon, so I have period 5 and 6. But anyhow, I had to help Shigeki-sensei with the listening test again during first period. all went well, but for some mysterious reason, the hot teacher who never talks to me was watching over us in the broadcasting room the whole time… random.

I started feeling sick again by the middle of the afternoon, so I left after 6^th period, making some excuse to Kyoto-sensei.

Friday

Woke up with my head pounding and called in sick.

sorry it wasn’t a very exciting week…

Week of June 13 to 17

Monday

Excerpt from family papers I had the 1^st years write. Mizuki from 1-7:

“This is my father, Hiroshi. He is a mother fan.”

Meaning her father loves her mother. cute!!!

Class with 1-7 was good, but my activity was just way too short and we ended up with a bunch of free time at the end… Aoshima-sensei just had them get started on their homework, but I thought it was a bit lame… One funny bit… after the game, Eitaro hadn’t gotten a sticker and he was pestering me for one. Since he’s always asking me to sing, I told him that if he sang me a song, I’d give him a sticker. He was like “nan ko?” (basically “how many will you give me?”) and I said one, and he sat there pondering it very seriously while his girlfriends were all laughing at him. And then he bursts out into the Japanese national anthem. rotfl!! And he went on for quite a while before I made him stop and gave him a sticker. Cutest thing ever. And then as the girl next to him is going “iiii naaaa” (basically she’s jealous), I hear him tell her “well go on then, you just have to sing a song and she’ll give you one too!” all matter-of-factly. lol. She never did though.

Then it was sentaku class with 3-3 and I’m doing a song by Simple Plan this week. It was a ballad too so it would be slower and they could catch the words more easily. But I guess the expressions were kinda difficult to understand. Well anyhow, even though a lot of kids did really well on the listening quiz (finally!), it kinda bombed and it made me a bit sad. They said they didn’t like the song, and that the band wasn’t cool. :(

After that it was the same lesson with 3-6 and Mizushima-sensei, which went down better, but they did worse on the quiz. At least they said they liked the song. I dunno what those kids did last weekend, but half of them were falling asleep on their desks. It was a bit depressing.

After I got back to the staffroom, shigeki sensei came over to tell me, in a very stressed voice (like, he is pissed but trying not to show it) that I should’ve shown him the handout before class because there were very many difficult words and he didn’t know how to translate them. It wasn’t that big a deal, honestly, nobody would judge you for not speaking English well because you don’t know the meaning to metaphors in pop songs… seriously! But no, his pride was all wounded and he was pissed. Fine, I’ll give you one next time, but I only finished the handout this morning so it’s not like I could’ve given it to him earlier anyhow. Besides, it’s the 3^rd lesson that I do that has the EXACT SAME PATTERN. How was I to guess that he would get pissed this time when the last two were fine? *sigh* oh well. It just rubbed me the wrong way… I mean, these lessons are the only free reign I have at all in my pitiful life as an ALT so, FUCK OFF!! (Yeah, I’m cranky…)

lol. My kyouto-sensei (vice-principal) is really funny. But he’s really sarcastic-funny, which is VERY rare amongst Japanese people… since most of them wouldn’t know sarcasm if it hit them in the face… conversation between me and kyouto-sensei:

(Note before you read, the post office is right behind the school)

Me: kyouto-sensei, can a go to the post office for a little bit?

KY: itterasshai (Japanese expression, means “go and come back”)

Me: ok

KY: Be careful. cuz, you know, it’s really far. How many minutes does it take? Really far. Wouldn’t want you to get hurt.

Me: (laughing) yes sir. ittekimasu! (What you answer to “itterashai”. Means “I’m going but I’ll come back”)

I dunno… was it funny? I thought it was funny… I guess you had to be there. Also, I guess I get happy when I can have conversations in Japanese with people here… it happens so rarely.

After school, when I’d almost gotten home after getting off the train, I ran into 2 of my ex-students, Doi and Yuka… they were super excited to see me, but although we were walking towards each other, and I thought I recognized Doi for a bit, I wasn’t sure until they were really close and I waved at them and they went “yappa!” (I knew it!) and Yuka was like “yeah, we recognized you from waaaaaaaay over there and were wondering if you were gonna recognize us!” aww… of course. we chatted for a bit – there was another girl with them who wasn’t one of my ex-students and she looked kinda bored, but she did tell them a few time “eigo sugoi”, which made me wonder how much English SHE could speak, because both girls were talking to me in a terrible mixture of butchered English and Japanese…

Tuesday

Today I have 5 classes. I’m gonna die. I just want this day to be over…

First period with 2-2 went well. But now I can’t remember anything that happened… except that the fat kid who smells like pee was absent, so I could stand by the window and it was actually pleasant. (I kid you not, there is a fat kid who smells like pee, and it’s terrible cuz no one is doing anything about it… but when he’s there the whole class smells FOUL).

Anyways, then it was class with 2-1, and I went in there right after first period cuz I didn’t wanna go back downstairs, and Wataru was sleeping on his desk. I went over and sat at the desk in front of him and put my head on my arms like an inch away from his face. He opened his eyes sleepily and saw me looking at him and went “oooh, bikkurishita!” (oh, I’m surprised!) but super quietly and sleepily… kaaaaaaaaaawaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!!!!!!!! and then he went back to sleep. lol. I swear if I ever have babies, I want them to look just like him cuz he is so darling adorable! Oh, and later on he came to show me that he was reading Snoopy comics, and that they were in English, but with Japanese translations, eheh. Class itself was normal. Actually, they were much more well-behaved than usual. Rei was spewing answers at me the whole time. lol. Ayumu kept making me hit him with his pen… he must have M tendencies….

And guess what? My big 5 class day turned into… 2 classes! And I’m done! I’m a little bit freaked out cuz, seriously, how did that happened? Apparently there is a mysterious schedule change (that everyone but me knew about) because there’s going to be a demo lesson for BoE people during 4^th period. And also, there’s no 6^th period today. Huh…. I guess, I am super happy about it, cuz I did not have the energy for 5 classes today, but it’s like some kind of awesome miracle, and whenever does that happen???

Plus my kids are totally digging my sideways braid today. I’m hearing way more “kawaii”s than usual :p

Wednesday

Morning. Today was the weekly morning meeting, and man… it was weird. first, they said congratulations to this one teacher who just had a baby, and he was all happy and stuff… then Kouchou-sensei made this speech, that I didn’t really understand except that it involved some guy who died of drunk driving (I think)… I’m not quite sure what the point of the story was, except he was crying and the room was dead quiet, and it was just kinda awkward for me cuz I had no idea what was going on. After that, they introduced a new teacher, who will apparently teach swimming to the kids. First, wtf do we need a special swimming teacher for?? And second, he’s all old and gangly, and it’s creeping me out that is job is watching little kids in swimming clothes… :/  but whatever. Anyhow. Off for a busy morning of 1^st year classes!

Class with 1-1 was fun although nothing really memorable happened. Except at the beginning of the class, this little girl was passing out the name-cards and she went “Kaishi-tte dare?” (who is Kaishi) but she was misreading the name that said “Kaisei” and he’s the first boy in front, so both me and the girl next to him went like “that’s Kaisei!” pointing to him. Then I added, “Kaisei is the most popular boy in AAA-shou” (AAA-elementary school) and he waved his hand “no, no, no!” and the girl next to him debated that Daiki was (which really surprised me). So I said (in Japanese) “oh really? I remember in Grade 5, when all the girls were ‘Kaisei! Kaisei!’ all the time”, and I laughed and he went beet red. CUTIE pie!! Honestly, that’s why he is one of the only 1^st years whose name I remember.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned it before, but recently, there is a teacher, Miwako-sensei, (I don’t even know what subject she teaches) who is the homeroom teacher for 3-1, who comes and asks me to check the diary or this one girl who decided she was gonna write her diary in English. In case you don’t know, JHS students here have to write a diary (in Japanese) every day, that their homeroom teacher looks at and… well I’m not quite sure what they do with it. I guess it’s to keep a link with the students in their homeroom. I think it’s quite a good idea. Anyways, Miwako-sensei is this really cute little woman, and every time she comes up to me, she goes all shyly “Vanessa….. kyou mou, onegaishimasu” (today too, please) and it just kinda makes me smile.

During class with 1-2, Yuka just basically needed to use the whole class and I just helped her out and it was chill. The kids had to write a small text, introducing one of their friends, and they all had pictures, and so it was fun looking at their pictures. One of the boys was introducing Eitaro! and so I told him “I love Eitaro!!! I am an Eitaro fan!” and they all just burst out laughing, they thought it was hilarious. One of the girls mentioned something about a “rival” but I have no idea if she meant that I had a rival for Eitaro’s love, or that Eitaro was now the rival of some other kid, because I was needed elsewhere. Still. It was funny.

Also, Yuka asked me to try and go probe this one girl to work. She told me she was a problem student, and that she (the kid) hated her (Yuka) and never listened to her no matter what she did. So I went and tried to coax the little girl to work, and I failed :/  To be honest, it’s kinda hard to have these kinds of interventions when your j-skills are shit. But I was like “don’t you have your picture? I really wanna hear your story” and she was sulking to my face but then she started looking for her picture, and another kid needed my help. At the end of the class, she still hadn’t done fuck all. After class Yuka asked me “so?” and I shook my head and she sighed. She told me that something was wrong with the girl and that she had met her mom and her mom had said she’d taken her to a mental hospital. Really? wtf?! I mean, sure, she might be a bit slow in her social growth or whatever, but there is nothing retarded about that kid. Again, it baffles me how Japanese society doesn’t know how to deal with anything psychological… or learning disabilities and stuff… *sigh*

Oh!!! When I got to the station after school, there was a girl in a purple t-shirt chilling there and when she saw me, she ran over and squealed “VANESSA!” I recognized Yume, one of my best girls from two years ago (even though she went “Yume! Yume! Remember me?”) and I was so excited to see her that I gave her a great big hug. Which is totally not normal for Japan. lol. If it was any other kid it might’ve been weird, but since Yume is such a genki girl she kinda laughed and hugged me back (a bit awkwardly, but still). I asked how was school and she said she was going to the one nearby, but that she was going on an exchange to the States for a year from this coming July! I was so excited for her! and I was so happy to see her and she was so happy to see me. It’s moments like this that actually make my life awesome. Totally brightened my day.

Thursday

Ok, I wrote on my facebook this morning “Today, I have 5 classes for real!” but, hum… I guess not? I was just told that my first period class was changed to 6^th period… I’m supposed to have class with 2-6 on 6^th period, but apparently that doesn’t get switched to replace 1^st period cuz it’s only my class and one class taught by kyouto-sensei that got switched? I’m so confused with these random schedule changes that I’m not told about. Even for my school, this is a LOT, and it’s weird. But hey, I’m not gonna complain on having 1^st period off!! and 4 classes are better than five! XD

3^rd period with 2-4 was ok, with minimal annoyance from Masaya…. I think ignoring him works well on him… once he’s calmed down, I’ll be his friend again. Then it was 4^th period with 3-4, and I dunno. It was weird. I mean, they were better behaved and more communicative than they have been in the previous music lessons, but more than half of them didn’t bother trying to answer the quiz or find the missing words. And it wasn’t THAT hard since many kids in other classes have said this lesson was easier. They seemed to like the song though. Also, Bad Ryota was singing. lol. Some made-up Japanese words, but he was singing along to the beat and it was funny.

Oh, and on the way to 2-4, I ran into the kids from 1-1 going to their music class, and got another proof that Johnny has a crush on me…. I was walking along with some kids, and when they saw me they went “Soma! Soma!!” (that’s Jhonny’s name) to make him turn around so he would look at me being there. When he did, they all giggled and he made this face like he pretended it wasn’t a big deal. pwah! Cute.

During class with 1-5, I learned that Akane (the kid who greeted me by showing me her ViViD pictures on the first day) was Ayane’s sister! (again, parents… a golf clap for originality in naming your kids…) Ayame was the only kid who liked VK in school for the last two years… me and her used to chat about Alice9 and I’m actually the one who made her discover ViViD cuz she didn’t know them before. I guess it makes sense that her kid sister likes VK too then. She was like “sensei! How do you write visual kei?” lol.

Then in class with 3-5, it was okay but they were kinda listless… Kazuma was sleeping on his desk the WHOLE time, and grunted “not another music lesson!” when he saw me taking out my ipod at the beginning of the class. Well first of all, I TOLD you all that sentaku classes were gonna be music for the WHOLE YEAR. (I guess he was sleeping when I said that too) and my music lessons are cool!! *sulks* Anyways, after class was over he woke up yawning and I was like “did you sleep well?” and he nodded with a huge sleepy grin. Later, he was washing his face at the taps or something and I was like “you’re ALWAYS sleeping!” and he just nodded and grinned this super cute smile at me! aaaargh! I can’t hate on him when he is being cute, dammit!

Oh yeah, and during class, again, all the students giggled when I said “Sebastien”, introducing the band members, so I finally asked “ok, what’s so funny?!” (cuz it had happened in every single class) and apparently there is a character called Sebastian in Doraemon… who knew? ;p

Friday

Morning! Today shall be very relaxed so I’m quite happy about it. The schedule is all crazy again so I shall have one class – maybe two. But I’m not sure about the first one cuz the schedule says 1nensei have no class today, but then I checked in one class yesterday and it was only 3^rd and 4^th period. Bah. I’m just gonna sit here and see if someone comes to tell me that I should be somewhere else :p

Huuuh… guess what… I guess I have no classes today! I just went to see Mizushima-sensei and he asked me to please not come again… I guess it’s kinda bad cuz it’s the second week in a row but… whatever. I know the tests are coming up next week and they are stressed. meh.

Well it’s now past 3pm and I can tell you that absolutely nothing exciting happened today. Bah. On to the weekend!!!