Today, through some strange quirk in the schedule, was the toughest one yet for me. I had only four classes to teach, but each one was with a different teacher and all of the ability levels were different. One lesson that I taught in the morning had run out of time before I could finish, and the same lesson in the afternoon finished with almost ten minutes left. The planning of the lessons is difficult – there are so many factors that vary with each class.
Other than the classes, the day went great. I caught a free lunch from the home economics class. It was a rice dish with egg and chicken over the top. They call it “Oyako”, translated as parent (oya) and child (ko). It was really good, although it could of used a big hit of hot sauce. I didn’t tell the home economics class, though.
After school, Mr. Hayashi had offered to take me to the post office and attempt international shipping. All of the sudden he got called into a meeting, so he roped Miss Kageyama into taking me instead. Miss Kageyama did a great job, and we were easily able to figure everything out. The only thing I’m worried about is US Customs – I understand it’s pretty tough to get stuff into the States.
When we got back to the school, everyone was still tied up in a staff meeting. We decided to bail out while everyone was gone, and so Miss Kageyama drove me all the way home. We practiced speaking English, and had a good time on the ride back.
When I got home, another part time teacher had left some goodies on my doorstep. A while back she had let Andrew (my predecessor) borrow a scale to weigh his luggage. She had forgotten about it, and had asked me to put it out on my doorstep a few days ago. I totally forgot, and so after many apologies, today I got it right. I had left a small “I’m sorry” gift for her, but she out-gifted me! Two giant Japanese pears, a basket full of monster Concord grapes, and some sweets.
I’m defrosting some tortillas right now for my big Mexican dinner – yum!
