It’s been a while–I need to go make dinner and get back to figuring out the second half of my Double-Length Class Of Doom (and therefore next week’s lesson plan, since the Midyear Conference and Burns’ Supper will eat up Thurs-Sun) for tomorrow.
Went to two enkais–junior high staffroom on Friday (they went out of their way to make sure I had a full veg menu–still tough to make conversation, but I did my best), and the Ikeda International Society enkai on Saturday (no immediately apparent veg food–bright-red boiled crabs staring at me when I sat down, actually–but they soon changed that), which was a pleasant surprise, and I got to meet more people and discover all these amazing English speakers I had no idea existed, as well as see several of my eikaiwa ladies and marvel at the gorgeous kimono two of them were wearing.
(I also spread the Pirates of Dark Water “gospel” a bit more this weekend. Lindsay liked, though I’m not sure she didn’t say that just to placate my rabid fandom; Nate was really excited to get a chance to see it, and was tempted to air it that night when a bunch of snowball fight team members were crashing at his place, thus doing my “evangelism” work for me (this is the kind of missionary work I wholeheartedly agree with, you see), but I haven’t heard his verdict yet.)
I also got kind of homesick and miserable last night. I guess it’s that downswing that all JETs apparently go through, now that we’re back at work after seeing friends/family and it’s cold and miserable and unfamiliar. It’s not making my under-3-weeks-away recontracting decision any easier to figure out, though.
Got back into my regular routine today, and it was strange to be back, honestly. It was nice to be back at my Monday morning shougakkou, though–but their usual teacher was sick and only made it into school as my taxi was pulling out, so I actually taught the class completely unsupervised. (Mwahahaha!) And I did a decent job at keeping them in line, too–granted, I’d already had two trial runs of this lesson, and it did go well. I was still a bit quiet at my junior high, but it’s just tough to be involved when my Japanese is still suffering a bit from my lack of regular usage in December. (It still startles me sometimes that I’m conducting classes completely in another language.) I’m trying my hardest to be more social, though, and try to get more involved with my junior high kids.
Louise called me tonight, and we talked for at least an hour…she had to battle her way through some snow (she’s in the prefecture next to one of the two they consistently refer to as “one of the hardest-hit by snow”) just to get to her apartment and up the stairs and into her door, only to find that the old laptop her boyfriend gifted her with has now died. Anyway, we’re now considering taking a long weekend in Tokyo next month, so we can hang out, hopefully catch a few classical acts, and take the GRE together.
Okay, and I really do go need to make something now. And figure out what music-related games I can play with my kids tomorrow that’ll make a class revolving around nothing but music fun and engaging. (Why does this school always have to be my guinea pig school? Sheesh…)