The rain has swept in and started saturating Futami and Takasago. I don’t really mind the weather – especially since it showed up after I walked home today. With the cooler temperatures I’ve been putting on more and more layers – it reminds me of that scene from the action movie where the main character is strapping on more and more equipment. It’s really not that cold yet.
Today during my third year lesson, I was dictating sentences to students, and I tripped up on the Japanese word “okonomiyaki”. The whole class kind of giggled, and then I started laughing, and it was tough to stop. One of the students got the giggles, too, so we both had to kind of settle down for a while.
Usually when I walk into one of my classes, it’s pandemonium. Kids are running around everywhere. The boys will be horsing around – throwing things, wrestling, juggling, whatever. The girls are in groups, laughing and talking. It’s anything but quiet.
This week we’ve combined my 20 student classes, so there are 40 students in each class. Twice the chaos, twice the fun.
Since we combined them, there are actually three teachers doing each class. When Miss Kageyama and I showed up for today’s lesson, there was a big difference in the student’s behavior. Miss Yamamoto had everyone sitting in assigned seats. She was writing down student numbers into a grid, and you could tell they had just gotten yelled at. Miss Kageyama and I exchanged a look and tried to keep things lighthearted the rest of the class. Miss Yamamoto is known for her strict classes, and I think 40 students was a little overwhelming at first.
Tonight I tried my hand at cooking gyuudon – beef strips with rice. There is an advanced part of the recipe where you carmelize onions and combine then with the beef over the rice. Somehow it didn’t work out. I was e-mailing Miss Kageyama trying to figure it out, and she finally just called me and we talked through it. I think I know what I need to do next time. She offered to show me how to cook it, so hopefully I can arrange something so that I can see this firsthand. Gyuudon is cheap, quick, and delicious – if I can master that I should be ready to move on the more advanced dishes.
Tomorrow is another big day – the next two weeks should be extremely busy at work. I’m off to get in my warm bed.
