I had just one class today – but I did get my schedule for the upcoming two weeks, and it was chock full of classes. From tomorrow on I’ll be really busy – four classes a day, and that won’t end for a while. Next week I’ll have 22 classes in a week, out of a possible 30. I’m looking forward to keeping busy and meeting all the new students.
Since I had some free time today, I worked on some Japanese, came up with some ideas for some new lessons, and went over some of the paperwork that I received from the staffing agency. The day went pretty quickly, actually, and I had time to meet some students in the hallways and even play ping-pong with the table tennis club after school.
The office manager, Sato-san, came over and spent a lot of time with me looking at the picture book that I brought along. She really enjoyed looking through the pictures, and I get a feeling that she really likes hanging out with the ALTs. She even went to Canada to attend the wedding of a former ALT, so she seems to build close relationships with them. That’s good news for me – since she’s the office manager she can really take care of me.
I was going to the assembly at the end of the day, and one of the handicapped kids grabbed me by the hand out of nowhere and walked with me towards the gym. I was a little surprised, but we walked together and he talked constantly to me in Japanese. I had trouble figuring out what he was saying, and to tell you the truth I was a little nervous because I don’t know anything about his condition, but I could tell he just wanted to be friendly. He seemed like a nice guy.
The school does all it can to help challenged students fit in with the other kids. There are people assigned to help the students go through normal routines, and they work side by side with the teachers to make sure that everything runs smoothly. There is a Chinese girl who is learning Japanese (and English, in my class), and so she has an adult interpreter that stays with her and helps her understand what is going on. The school is built to handle challenged kids, but they make up only a small percentage of the student population – just 10 kids out of 500 or so.
I took the fastest train I could on the way home, and the best case scenario has me getting home around 5:15 p.m. That’s pretty good – and I get a lot of studying done on the way home, too.
Tonight I’m going to make Korean yakiniku for dinner, so I’ve got the meat marinating while I’m waiting for Kuniko to get home. In the meantime I’ll do a little laundry and get the place organized. It’s only Tuesday – I’ve got lots of classes ahead of me and lots of tiny hands to shake.
