Today was pretty uneventful – I spent time today teaching three classes, and for the most part, the students were enthusiastic. One of the exercises is to write the answer to some tough questions like “What is your teacher’s name?” and “What are his hobbies?” One student today wrote my name on the board with a little heart at the end, so I just ignored it and pretended like I’m used to this sort of thing.
I spent my off time at work learning some new Japanese verbs, and the teachers were amused to walk by and watch me practicing. I think it helps them to realize that I’m not some sort of amazing trilingual genius – I have a lot of work to do.
When I cooked up my tacos in the microwave, it filled the teacher’s room with a smell that must have been new to everyone. A couple of people stopped by to ask questions. At my desk, I gave Mr. Komuri a sample of a taco, and then one of the girl’s P.E. teachers showed an interest so I gave her a quesadilla to try. She went nuts – I couldn’t tell if she was being over-polite, but I think she really liked it. She passed on a bite to another teacher, and so a little Mexican food went a long way. When other teachers arrived after their 4th period class and found out that they missed it, they were pretty bummed out. I’m going to have to bring in some more Mexican food soon. I also found out who teaches the Japanese calligraphy class, or shodo, at my school – it turns out it’s the same teacher that kicked my butt in ping pong. I’m going to ask him to help me out with shodo as well.
After school I shared a train ride home with one of my English club members, and we had a great conversation, half in Japanese and half in English. On the way home I stopped in at the shaved ice stand, because it had been so long since I had talked to the shaved ice lady. She was really happy to see me, and I was dreading what was going to happen after I got my shaved ice. She usually tries to give me something special each time I’m there. This time I sat down, and when I had finished my shaved ice, I went up to say goodbye. She had been in there making takoyaki for me, and gave me 10 pieces for my dinner. She is so nice – I’m looking for the right gift for her. I have a couple of ideas, though.
I dropped by Melanie’s place and gave her half the takoyaki – I didn’t know what her dinner plans were but she’s in a financial crunch until payday, so I wanted to help out a bit. Melanie asked me to go out with her and a guy named Brendan that we had met at a party a while back. The guy is kind of annoying, but I guess Melanie agreed to go out with him. I guess I am there to keep things legit. I don’t know why she agreed to go out with him if he’s a loser, but I’m not going to turn down Murphy’s on draft.
Tomorrow I’ve arranged to have conversations in Japanese with Miss Kageyama for about an hour once a week. I’m hoping we can do it more often, but for know we’re going to try it out and see how it goes.
