I jumped on the train today, whipped out my mp3 player, and promptly entered the “StereoZone” where I rocked out while everyone else on the train covertly glanced my way to see why I was tapping my feet. I was so wrapped up in my stereo that I walked right out the train door listening to “American Woman” and left my umbrella hanging on my seat. Maybe somebody yelled something or tried to get my attention. Since I was in the “StereoZone” I guess I’ll never know. Time to buy a new umbrella.
I got to school and lots of teachers came by to check and make sure that I was feeling better – it was very nice of them to do that. Many said that I should leave early today and get some rest, and that was highly unusual. My classes today went really well. I did a new lesson for my second years involving cash – and boy did their eyes light up when I started pulling money out and flashing it around. I sent some coins around the room for them to check out, and they all came back!
The students were fairly interested in the lesson, and I enjoyed teaching it. I’m starting to see a correlation between the amount of interest I have in the topic and the amount of interest the students show. The trick for me is to make lessons that I will enjoy teaching every time. Each one will have to be taught between 8-16 times, so it had better be good.
The principal called me and Mr. Hayashi in for a meeting, and apparently they had evaluated my performance at some point. I’m not sure who did it, but I got A’s in four categories, and a B in the fifth category. Since all the categories were in Japanese I don’t know what I fell short in. I asked Mr. Hayashi later and he said that probably they just fill in A’s arbitrarily and make one a B so it doesn’t look fake. The scary thing is that he’s probably right.
Mr. Hayashi drove me to the bank to take care of some business, and then set me loose an hour early. The bonus for him was that he got to leave early, too. He has said before that he can’t really go home too early. The neighbors see his car when he comes home early, and since they all know he’s a civil servant they get ticked off. They feel that he should have to work a full day. I guess the folks in his neighborhood have a lot of time to kill.
Tonight I cooked nabe. Andrew, my predecessor, had left me a couple of nabe pots – ceramic pots that you fill with a broth and goodies and then make a hot soup. I used cabbage, egg, miso, habanero sauce, a little soy sauce, Japanese mushrooms, green onions, strange Japanese clear noodles, and lots of sesame seeds. It turned out pretty good – I’m taking the leftovers into school tomorrow.
