Tuesday-
Tuesday morning, I had to go to my nursery schools. I love those kids. They are precious! It doesn’t matter if they do something wrong because they are still adorable. Before I go to my nursery schools, I always go to the BOE for about fifteen minutes. I’m not sure why I have to do this because it is exactly enough time to get nothing accomplished.
Every employer in Japan is required to give their employees a free health check up every year. My supervisor explained that mine would be on October 12th. I had to fill out paperwork on Tuesday, and she had to translate it for me. Some of it was basic stuff you would fill out in the States like family history, how many times you exercise per week, if you smoke, etc. I got pretty close and personal with my supervisor because she had to ask me when my last period began and ended. In addition, she had to explain to me how to take a urine and stool sample. I have to have both for my check up. I’ve never taken either, so she had to explain how to collect each…specimen. We use google translate to communicate to one another, so whenever she gave me the stool sample container, it translated to “for shit.” That made me giggle. Another funny question was about pregnancy. Whenever you use google translate, it translates as you type. Whenever she was typing out the “are you currently pregnant?” question, I said no before she even finished typing it because I saw “pregnant.” We both laughed at that.
I was able to take Brittany with me to school on Tuesday. I didn’t have any afternoon classes because the English teachers had to go to Hitoyoshi for something, so we hung around the office. After I introduced her to everyone, she helped me complete some flashcards. I showed her my desk, walked around the school, and showed her my English board. She was my featured foreigner for this month. J It was so funny to watch the students’ reactions to Brittany. It was like they were seeing double. Two foreigners at one school blew their minds. At lunch time, we ate with the 3rd graders (really 9th graders in the States). It was a lot of fun. Brittany said that she didn’t have that experience at her school. She said that she always ate lunch in the teacher’s room. I enjoy eating with the students. They don’t always talk to me, but it’s interesting to try! After lunch, we found some girls to hang out with. They were very curious about Brittany, so they asked her questions, but after that, we played Old Maid, which is “Baba nuki” in Japanese. When the break time was over, everyone seemed generally disappointed and asked if we could play again tomorrow. I told them that on Wednesdays I go to the elementary school, Thursday I would be in Kumamoto, but we could play again on Friday. Brittany stayed the afternoon with me. She said that it was very interesting for her to get a different perspective on the JET Program.
That night, we continued to play catch-up on Brittany’s TV/movie watching. Brittany and I watched the three episodes of Vampire Diaries from this season. It was ridiculously fun to do that with her because she is the person who first got me hooked on Vampire Diaries. We both have an unhealthy obsession with the show, so Ian made fun of us as we squealed with delight. J Ian made dinner that night, and one of our friends joined us. We introduced her and Brittany to Tosh.o. They were both rolling after a few episodes.
Wednesday-
I went to the elementary school on Wednesday. I never know what kind of day it’s going to be at the elementary school. Wednesday was a pretty good day at the elementary school. I had three classes. In my class of 4th graders, I had to do a mini-lesson on Halloween. My teacher brought in two Halloween books and wanted me to read them to the class. One was Arthur and the other was about trick-or-treating. That was my favorite part of the day. I got really into reading them and acting out the character’s lines, so the kids thought it was really funny. The books were basic elementary Halloween books. At lunch I accidentally went to the wrong class room. I have assigned rooms to eat lunch in, and I was supposed to eat in class 2-1, but I went to 2-2. Oops. I didn’t realize it until after we started eating, and another teacher came in. From their tones, I could tell that they were talking about me, and I gathered that I was in the wrong place. L The kids loved it, though. During break time, they always want me to play with them. It was raining, so we couldn’t go outside like normal. I taught them the hand slap game “bisquick” that I played in elementary school last week, and now it’s all the rage. Girls stood in line wanting to do it with me. I even saw some of the boys doing the motions by themselves. I finally had the good idea of doing it in a circle so that everyone could participate. They also wanted to play the “history game.” I had no idea what this was, but I agreed to play it! When I saw them arranging chairs in a circle with the seats facing outward, I realized that it was musical chairs. I was one of the last three still standing, but the kids had an advantage on me in the fact that they are shorter and therefore closer to the chairs than me. I lost.
Ian took Brittany to Hitoyoshi that day to show her around and do some shopping. When I got home, Ian told me he bought his Halloween costume. I think I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again. Ian decided that he wanted to go as a pimp for Halloween this year. I winced as he showed me his costume. It was good….very good. Pictures will follow. That night, we had big, fat American night. I made fried chicken, biscuits, mashed potatoes, gravy, and chocolate chip cookies. Yum. We also continued our TV/movie watching streak. We completed two seasons of Tosh.o and watched Bridesmaids.
Once again, I’ll end it here to not make it so long. Stay tuned for part III. J
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