So... my new school pretty much sucks then.
The kids are friendlier, but the teachers are not. They are also very lazy compared to the last school I was at. They let the kids get away with lots that they don't at Rokusho. It seems that the kids are impossible to shut up. Also annoying is the tiny school lunch portions, and how late the kids eat. I get my lunch dished up at 12:15, when I go upstairs to eat with the kids at 12:45 they haven't even gone down to get it yet. Seems like my food is gonna be very cold this semester. And the homeroom teacher is hardly ever with his class, they are just left to their own devices. Because of this a lot of bullying goes on, the kids are always whispering secrets around the class, swapping their food, making deals and stuff. This sort of thing rarely happened at the other school because the teacher was always with their class watching them and talking to them.
I also feel a bit in the way here. There are teachers who plainly just do not want me in the school, and do not see the point of English class. Yesterday during my grade 3 class I was just having fun with the kids explaining about Australian stuff (which they had asked me about) and the teacher stepped in and just said "They don't know about Australia OK, this is ridiculous" and totally ruined the mood.
Sigh.
January 11, 2007
January 10, 2007
Higashi-sho - the gossip school
The teachers at my new school are the nosiest people I have ever encountered. Last night before I went home I was just checking my e-mail and Kataoka comes over, leans right in looking at the screen and asks me what I am looking up! When I replied "e-mail" he asked where my e-mail is, who I use or whatever and I'm surprised he didn't ask for my username and password too. He then proceeded to give me the 3rd degree about how many times I've been in Japan and which cities I've visited here and so on. Also said I was wasting my time skiing in Nagano when the snow is so much better in Hokkaido. Yeah, even though Nagano is good enough for the Olympics Games, it's lacking something for me. And today while I was on the computer earlier on I could hear the Head Teacher spouting off my details to a textbook delivery man like I was a recently purchased pedigree dog or something. My height, dental structure, typing speed... I'm sure it's only going to be a matter of time before they find a way to weigh me too. Slip a scale under my chair or something...
Meanwhile I am yet to teach a class here, although I did do the kindy this morning. We had fun, they are much better behaved than the kids at the other school. Today I'm just feeling worn out and a little bit resentful at having to get used to a whole new workplace again. I have a feeling that the kids won't be an issue here, but that the teachers are going to be a trial. They're throwing me a welcome party today where I have to make a speech to introduce myself. It is merely a thinkly veiled inquisition, I wouldn't be surprised if they take notes and compare them later.
Meanwhile I am yet to teach a class here, although I did do the kindy this morning. We had fun, they are much better behaved than the kids at the other school. Today I'm just feeling worn out and a little bit resentful at having to get used to a whole new workplace again. I have a feeling that the kids won't be an issue here, but that the teachers are going to be a trial. They're throwing me a welcome party today where I have to make a speech to introduce myself. It is merely a thinkly veiled inquisition, I wouldn't be surprised if they take notes and compare them later.
January 09, 2007
Skiing is tops fun!
Well, here I am back at work. Yay!! The new school is called Higashi-sho and I will be here until the end of my contract on March 31st. The teachers all seem friendly enough. My classes start tomorrow with a morning at the kindy... Eew. But I've figured it all out and there are only 11 weeks left of teaching here. Easy. The school is about a half hour walk from my house which I'm glad about since it will force me to actually do some exercise ;) There are fewer kids here than my previous school, but not by much so I will be kept fairly busy again. It feels very wrong to be at work.
My holidays were tops. I went up to Tokyo, caught up with an old friend from when I was studying in Hiroshima. Wandered about Tokyo for a while, even did some shopping on the 2nd in the Ginza, not that I could really afford anything they were selling, even at 50%off! All the shops are getting rid of their stock in massive sales and since there's little else to do on the second day of the year everyone gets down there and spends all their new year's money. But by far the best part of the holiday was skiing in Nagano. It ended up taking a fair while to get there by shinkansen and then bus to Hakuba. But there was plenty of powdery snow and for the 2 days I was on the slopes, blue skies too! Very lucky. Skiing is heaps of fun, at first I was a bit skeptical about it all, especially after I went for a massive stack and used my face as a plough for a while. But I got the hang of it pretty quickly and after the second day was cruising down the hill without any worries. Managing to keep myself in a straight line, or at least a controlled curve might not have been quite so stressful if not for the fact that the beginngers slope was right on the edge of a sheer drop down the mountain! Had I gotten out of control and slid off the edge I wouldn't have been coming up without the help of a helicopter or a sky hook I reckon! Even though the weather was fabulous there really weren't too many people around and waiting for the ski lift really wasn't such a big deal. I have a few photos which I might put up later. But really I didn't take many, I was just enjoying myself. Besides, it's all just Japan aye!
Hope everyone else had a good break and have adjusted to being back at work without too many issues... I'll get onto that bit now :)
My holidays were tops. I went up to Tokyo, caught up with an old friend from when I was studying in Hiroshima. Wandered about Tokyo for a while, even did some shopping on the 2nd in the Ginza, not that I could really afford anything they were selling, even at 50%off! All the shops are getting rid of their stock in massive sales and since there's little else to do on the second day of the year everyone gets down there and spends all their new year's money. But by far the best part of the holiday was skiing in Nagano. It ended up taking a fair while to get there by shinkansen and then bus to Hakuba. But there was plenty of powdery snow and for the 2 days I was on the slopes, blue skies too! Very lucky. Skiing is heaps of fun, at first I was a bit skeptical about it all, especially after I went for a massive stack and used my face as a plough for a while. But I got the hang of it pretty quickly and after the second day was cruising down the hill without any worries. Managing to keep myself in a straight line, or at least a controlled curve might not have been quite so stressful if not for the fact that the beginngers slope was right on the edge of a sheer drop down the mountain! Had I gotten out of control and slid off the edge I wouldn't have been coming up without the help of a helicopter or a sky hook I reckon! Even though the weather was fabulous there really weren't too many people around and waiting for the ski lift really wasn't such a big deal. I have a few photos which I might put up later. But really I didn't take many, I was just enjoying myself. Besides, it's all just Japan aye!
Hope everyone else had a good break and have adjusted to being back at work without too many issues... I'll get onto that bit now :)
January 07, 2007
January 05, 2007
January 03, 2007
January 01, 2007
Happy New Year!!
G'day 2007! Hmm, I have a feeling that I was the only one of the people I know who was up and about at 6am this morning, but then again, I am also probably the last person to see the new year since I was well asleep at midnight. My bus was quite comfy, the seats are spacious, they lean right back almost flat. Even so, after 11 hours in such a position I was ready to get out. My feet had swollen up a bit and everything! But hey, here I am in Tokyo. I spent some time this morning wandering aimlessly in Shinjuku trying to find either an internet cafe or a hotel with reasonable prices. I called a few capsule hotels but there are few which welcome females and none of them had an vacancies unfortunately. I have just decided to bite the bullet and fork out for a real hotel. I think after 3 days without a shower I might appreciate the bathroom arrangement there... It's urban camping :)
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