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Monday, September 13, 2010

Tom Cruise

September 8th
I had some awesome classes today.  In the morning, I was introduced to the entire school and a student who had won an English contest a year ago, gave a short speech in Japanese and English for me.  These kids are so professional, it scares me.  My first class, while giving my introduction, we found out a student and I share the same birthday, and he’s exactly half my age.  We’re buddies already.  More Evangelion fans, more handshakes and screaming, my eardrums are blown…blah blah blah.  My second and last class at this school only had 3 students.  While talking about my work on the ranch, one of the students became particularly interested and finally explained that his family owns a farm with cows.  He helps out in the morning, before school, and after he gets back from sports practice.  This kid is amazing, won’t stop working all day.  My JTE at this school knows a lot of English and can translate nearly everything I say.  It came in handy when pronouncing my last name and sister’s name.  We also told them what the names translate to from Greek.  There is now a class of 15 students that has my sister’s name written in their journals.  That, is unique.
I am now called ‘The Sportsman’ by one of the assistant teachers because of all the water activities I taught in Mission Bay.  It’s slowly spreading to the other teachers, and I can only pray that the Johnny Depp and Sportsman nicknames merge someday.  At lunch, we had eel over a bed of rice, miso soup, and cucumber salad with those little fish again.  The students took so long to prepare all the dishes, that they only had 8 minutes to finish everything.  I haven’t eaten that fast EVER.  My stomach was hurting, but I still managed to eat a half bag of orange slices my grandma and grandpa sent me.  Really, I’m going to gain 10 pounds this month. 
I headed to Mochidome Elementary after lunch and had to wait 2 hours until my one and only class at this school.  Sleep…was…all…..I………wanted.  When driving into the school, kids were practicing riding their unicycles.  Two of them fell while trying to stare and me and cycle at the same time.  I helped sweep the school floors with the kids when it was cleaning time, and made friends with a tiny little 1st grade girl.  The broom stick was nearly double her height.  But we laughed and had a fun time sweeping down the hallways.  My one and only class was so cool.  The teacher barely spoke English, so I had the chance to do tons of animal imitations and overly expressive gestures.  The kids loved it, but couldn’t get enough of the pictures from back home.  They love the bear, motorcycles, and cowboy stuff.  I got home with the intention of updating this blog with pictures, but I relaxed and watched Ocean’s Thirteen during dinner.  I’m going to post this, but add pictures later.  Sorry!  I’m beat and have a pretty full day tomorrow.  Thanks again to everyone who sent me birthday wishes and made my day so great yesterday.  I couldn’t have asked for more!

September 9th
Today we had a morning meeting at work, which I didn’t understand at all.  My first class was with 2 special education students and they LOVED the pictures of the bear in our backyard.  They also went crazy when they found out I liked to fish.  I hung out in the office for a couple hours until my next class and it turns out we were just going to play games all period.  I had lunch with the same class and a fight broke out between two boys.  The male teacher just sat there while the two were wailing on each other.  Once they finally stopped, the teacher got up and sat between the two without saying a word.  I still don’t understand what their mentality is in this situation. 
I left after lunch for my next school.  Finally got called Tom Cruise.  I’ve been waiting for that one.  I have yet to meet anyone at this school that can speak a complete English sentence.  The teacher was hilarious, trying to translate, but the kids loved the pictures and I finally found a student that loves to surf.  She asked 3 different questions about where I surf, so I’m guessing I might be seeing her at my spot.  

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