How FAB is today??

I woke up today... and the sun is shining, the sky is blue, and I'm happily sore! What a great way to start the day. :-)

This week has been awesome! I'm at my FAVE junior high. I love Amarume, but I don't have the bond with my students like at Tachikawa. The difference is in the size... I have almost 600 students at Amarume, but only 199 at Tachikawa. So, this week has been like a massive homecoming! And my kids have been awesome.

The new 1st years are SO cute! There are some super tiny kids, but there's also some REALLY tall kids. I'll never be able to explain why I have kids that are nearly 6' tall at 12 and then some who barely hit 4'. Bizarreness, eh?

One short bit about yesterday...
I planned a kendo extravaganza for myself. As I'll be in Tokyo for awhile (starting Thurs.), I wanted to get a good bit of kendo in before I went away. So, I went to club practice after school yesterday. I LOVE going to Tachikawa practice. The kids are helpful, they're encouraging, and they like that I'm there! And yesterday was no different. I had a GREAT time! I got home just past 6... and had just a little over an hour to wait before I went to kendo with Amarume. And that was great too!! I felt like I got a really good workout... and at the end I was BEAT!! Totally and completely. Thus the soreness when I woke up this morning... :-)

YAY!!! Today's going to be GREAT!

It's MONDAY alright...

Have you ever noticed that no matter how well the day starts out... Mondays ALWAYS seem to drag?? This is coming from the person who had a GREAT morning... 2 classes and they both went really well... had a great time with the chiddlies!

But somehow.... the mondays always getcha! I've managed to do a bit of studying... interspersed with several bouts of staring at my keyboard without really knowing what to do with it...

BUT, instead of moaning about Mondays I'm going to talk about my weekend...

Friday was great... did a bit of kendo, did a lot of drinking and singing (izakaya and karaoke!!!) and then headed back to Lauren's. The original plan was to be able to get up to watch some morning kendo (there was a big kendo thing going on in Fujishima [Lauren's town] on Saturday...)... but as we didn't get rolling out of our futons until noon... there was barely enough time for breakfast and a shower before going over to Kim and Peter's.

Kim's birthday was yesterday... so as a birthday surprise Peter got Lauren and I to come watch Soren for the night while mom and dad got away. We had a great time with the baby and it sounded like they had a great time just the two of them. :-)

Then yesterday was the Sakura Marason! I did a 5k... which would have gone a bit better if I'd not been out until 4:15 on Friday night/Saturday morning. All in all it went alright and I'm getting geared up for the next one!

And now I've killed more Monday time... just a few minutes before play... erm... cleaning time!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY... part 2!

Yes, in Japan we all get 2 part birthdays because of the time difference. :-) Added perk of being away from friends and family on your birthday... you get TWO!!! So on this, my second birthday, I woke up to emails from a bunch of my friends at home who remembered that today was my birthday!! Thanks guys... I feel loved.

And an added bonus... I've already gotten to go to one class this morning! And it's only the second day of school... I've never gotten into the classroom this fast before. Boo... it would have to start right when I'm about to leave Japan, eh?? Why am I going home again?? Oh, yeah... I have to! ;-)

Anyway... tonight it's girl's night on the town... Lauren, Kirsty, Chisato (cool Japanese friend who's birthday is the 13th), and I are going out for drinks and karaoke. But first Kirsty and I are doing a bit of kendo... we have our priorities!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!!

Today's been GREAT!! I was woken up this morning with a phone call... it was Lauren saying, I'm downstairs - let me in!!! She came bearing presents and pancake mix. While I showered she cooked me breakfast! What a great friend. :-)

I've gotten well-wishes from all over... thanks guys, I'm having a GREAT day!!!

One step further...

So, the boredom factor is at a boiling point...

- arrived at school... feeling fairly genki and humming "No More Cry"
- made several of my students say "good morning" instead of "ohayogozaimasu"
- 9.30... was still feeling genki... until I realized that I had HOURS to go before lunch rolled around!
- was saved from boredom for about 30 minutes because I texted with Robbie
- then I decided, I should really study Japanese... so I did, and then I realized why I get frustrated with Kumon worksheets... when am I ever going to need to use the verb "suspicious"?? when!?!?!??
- for the last hour I've been thinking how amusing it would be to non-fatally hurt myself (sprain an ankle maybe...) and have to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance... then at least I wouldn't be bored anymore...
- argh! I am loving Japan right now... but that bit has little to do with work... cuz work is going to suck for AT LEAST one more day!

BORED, BORED, BORED!!!

Yeah, that sums things up today. I'm going out of my head with boredom! First, I worked onmy taxes this morning... then I studied some Japanese... then I ate lunch... now in between those "thens" I checked my email far too many times, read some random, not very interesting celebrity gossip, and generally stared into space for long periods of time.

And I'm sorry to say that my boredom will not be satiated until Thursday because all of my students have tests starting tomorrow and running through Wednesday. Can I shoot myself? PLEASE!!!

On the less bored front, I went and messed around with my kids during lunch break-time... and I got to terrorize some of my new 1st years. They all know the answer to the question "How are you??" but getting them to use it... hahaha! Poor dears, it all must be very overwhelming for them! ;-) Gotta love 'em though.

Am off to try to not be bored... not holding out much hope!

It's A Happy Day!!

Today is the first day of school. We've had the "meet the new teachers" assembly and the "pep talk from kocho and homeroom teacher announcement" assembly. Now the class groups are meeting together...

I was afraid that things would be really bad today. That the kids would not be as cool or chilled-out as my kids that just graduated... SILLY ME!!!

During cleaning time this morning I talked with loads of my kids just chatting... it's amazing what moving up a year will do for 3nensei kids. They're so nice now!?! (A lot of them were little shits last year!) YAY!!! Big relief... though, I'm afraid that leaving in a few months will only be made that much more difficult. Oh, well... I'll cross that bridge later.

BEST Week!!

Ok... so this is a bit delayed, but last week was the BEST week ever!! I got to play with SO many of my former students!! That sounds a bit weird, but really it was play. ;-)

Wed. - Toru and Yuta... we met and did purikura and then a massive karaoke session!! See these two constantly fight about who's the bigger loser when they're around me! They try to put each other down in English. It's HILARIOUS!! That hilarity is compounded by the fact that Toru loves hip-hop... and calls himself... DJ TORU!!! I LOVE this kid!! ;-) Great day. At the end, I was given a pack of 4 MDs... all hip-hop, both Japanese and American. And... DJ Toru?? He can be my DJ anytime!!

Thurs. - I met Mio... she is one of my old eikaiwa kids from a few years ago. She's now in OT school in Yamagata City and was up for part of Spring Break. She's SO much fun. We had a nice chat... we'd not seen each other for about 8 months or more. So, we had loads to catch up on... plus, I know all of her siblings... so we chatted about them a bit as well. Esp. her little brother whom I still teach. He CRACKS me up! Then we went and tok purikura... SO fun!! Just the two of us doing it... was really hilarious... we laughed so much!!
After that I headed to kendo.... 2000 strokes... it was amazing. If you want more details... let me know. All I can say is... kendo is amazingly mental!!

Friday - Low key day... but on my way back from Kirsty's I got a text from one of my old students... and he said "are you free tomorrow? we can meet up!!" Now, this is one of my FAVE students of all time!! He's so cool... isn't a great English student, but just a really great kid. So, I was stoked about that!!

Saturday - Did some gardening... did some running... got a call from Daisuke around 2 saying, club's over... I'll go home and change then we'll come to your house. 3... Daisuke, Hisashi and me head for karaoke!! SO funny!! These boys just crack me up. Daisuke loves this group called "yuzu" and so... ended up being the self-proclaimed "yuzu baka" for the day.
After 4 hours (nearly) of karaoke, I had to take them home because I was meeting Lauren at 8 to see Roman Holiday. I love AUDREY!!! ;-)

Sunday - Saturday afternoon I got a text from my FAVE Ama-chu grad from this year... Kohei. He said, sorry I couldn't meet and do purikura the other day, wanna meet tomorrow. So... Sunday afternoon, I met Kohei in Sakata to do purikura. He's such a cutie!! He was all... this is funny, you're an adult. But I think telling him that I'm really not... and I'm a friend helped a bit. Silly boys! So, we did a bit of purikura... and then I drove him home since he'd just gotten done with hurdle practice. But had a great talk about running and English and stuff on the way back. MAN... I love that kid!!

Last night... Lauren and I did something really stupid! She mentioned that the foreign foods store has Boone's. So, being REALLY smart, we hopped in my car and got 4 bottles of Boone's and headed back to hers. The final conclusion: how did we EVER drink that stuff?? HOW?? The sweetness alone made us feel ill!!!

So... there's the grand update... hope this finds you all well!! :-)