Just wrapped up a four day weekend that featured a Halloween party, fierce blustery winds, a day of rain and a couple of decent days of sunshine. I spent most of the time at home trying to rest my heel which has continued to be sore lately, and supporting Kuniko who had to work three of the four days I had off. We were able to enjoy the evenings, however, with a steak dinner, indian curried chicken, and hot soymilk nabe.
The weather is officially cold now that the rain has passed, and we’ve had to heat the floors now and then in the evenings. I had forgotten how effective that is in heating up the living room – we just need to remember to turn them off about an hour before bed to be as efficient as possible. Heated floors – so nice.
One of the bonus features of a long weekend is the subsequent short week, so I’ll be working hard for just a few days before another weekend kicks in. I had to cancel a planned hiking trip to give my heel a little more recovery time before I push it in the mountains. No plans on seeing a doctor yet, but if it isn’t much better by the end of next weekend then I’ll consider it.
I’ve noticed that at work all my students seem to be exhausted, and I’m wondering if it is because of a heavy workload recently or because maybe I’ve had lots of time to refresh myself while they have been slaving away. The lessons continue to go pretty well, but I want to saddle more and more of the conversational load on them, and that means I have to resist the urge to interject during long pauses. My American nature is to fill any gaps with conversation, but that can lead to lost opportunities for them while they are still thinking about how to say something. I’m hoping they’ll start to fill these conversational gaps that I’m leaving them, but sometimes we end up staring at each other until somebody laughs. Maybe I’m just a weird teacher.
Tomorrow I’ll be teaching at Kobe University again so it’ll be a late night. I’m enjoying those courses and it is amazing how even though I’m using the same lesson plan the classes vary dramatically. That’s why I like teaching so much – the students provide enough variety to keep my interest even when I’m teaching the exact same thing.
