Sports Day led to a meeting at the elementary school which led to my weekly cooking class. All of the activity kept me awake longer than I should have been, meaning that I was not well rested for my first day of teaching at the elementary school.
Friday, I rose early so I could swing by the JHS to pick up a few materials I'd forgotten. Saying a brief hello, I grabbed what I needed, and hurried to the elem. I had been scared of teaching at the elementary school. Little kids aren't real people, and what do I do with miniatures? I was worried they would go berserk, that none of the teachers or students would understand what I was trying to say. That I'd be a failure. The funny thing is that the kids did go berserk, and I seriously doubt they could understand what I was saying, but I was no failure. They loved every minute of it, and so did I. Little kids, despite not being reasoning people, are lots of fun and excitable, cute, and easy to engage. I got to play music, dance, and make kidlets snap, whistle, jump, yell, wiggle, and move. They might have even learned something.
My energy was running high after my four classes with the 10 year olds. Sadly, that energy was sapped by the 3 mindless hours I was forced to spend in the staff room to even out the working day. One of the teachers had died the previous Monday, and many staff members had gone to her funeral. I managed to pass out the taffy I'd brought as omiyage to the other teachers. They liked it a lot. I felt bad because I miscounted and I think I stiffed two people. The gifts to the Principal and VP weren't very successful. They liked them, to be sure, but one of the gifts was a Fourth of July candle that I got at the dollar store. The Principal remarked that it was made in Vietnam. The VP asked me why I'd given a candle with the French flag on it.
With nothing else to do, I returned to my desk (my corner in between the printer and two dusty, ancient-looking computers) and counted down the minutes to 3:30 when I could leave. To keep myself from falling asleep, I found a world map with country flags on it, and picked my favorites. The winners? Turkmenistan
and Kazakhstan.
In case you were wondering, my boredom was so great that I have a complete list of favorites that numbers around 40 or so. Don't worry, I'm not going to pass that boredom on to you. However, if you want to see some cool photos concerning life in Japan, I uploaded some photo albums which you can access from the sidebar. Tell me if something doesn't work.
