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let's see if this works
I'm trying an experiment.
I figured out that there are a few open wireless networks on my way to Warabi station. Not many, and the notable one with a good landmark is one that seems to work from the 7-11. Now I mean, I can't just stand in the 7-11 forever, but I figure that what I'll do is, instead of going to the internet cafe for a long time, I'll write my entries here at home on my laptop, then sync them to my T-Mobile device, and then hopefully I can just upload it when I pass by the 7-11. I suppose I could even go in and buy a drink.
I just watched the opening ceremonies for the Koshien high school baseball tournament! So exciting! Funny part is that if I was still in Seattle I could watch most of the tournament over the internet, since 9am-5pm in Japan is currently 5pm-1am in Seattle. Alas, I can pretty much watch here until about 11am and then I have to leave for work. Though, I get the impression that if I have free time in the afternoon it wouldn't be hard to go find a place that has the game on TV...
Anyway, yesterday was my first day of work. I showed up super-early, at like 11:50am, despite that I didn't have to be there until 12:40pm. Sachi was pretty surprised, but I told her I wanted to drop off some stuff and then I would go get lunch. So I did that. A few blocks from the station, there is a covered shopping street called La La Garden, and I found a kaitensushi place in there, so yay! I also found a place with a Pop'n machine for 100 yen a play, so I played a game of it, too.
I got back a bit before 12:40, signed in, and then Rita and I spent like 2 hours going through paperwork and some lesson planning. For the first day, she was teaching and I was watching. We had two students in the 3pm class, both housewives. I think I screwed up once by interrupting one of the students, which may be bad because I think she was one of the ones who wasn't sure if she would renew her contract. (I was just excited since she said she loves ballroom dancing, so I said "Oh! Me too!") So, I learned a lesson from that and won't do it again. I tried very hard for the rest of the day to just listen and listen and nod and all and give people a lot of time to speak, which is important.
Our next class wasn't until 7pm, so Rita had me try to plan a class for Wednesday for the Passages book, and she worked on correcting homework. We took a break to get drinks and snacks arond 5pm. I think I came up with an okay lesson plan but I really won't know until I try it. It's pretty nerve-wracking.
The 7pm class had 5 people in it, most of whom work together at a bank. Our discussion was on bad habits -- we taught the word "procrastinate", among other things. The class eventually devolved into people talking about all the places they have lived in Japan, but they were all speaking English, so that was the important part.
The 8pm class was only 3 people. The fourth student wasn't able to come this week. For this class we were talking about verb tenses and did a "People of the Year" exercise. I realized later that I should not have picked all Japanese celebrities for my exercises. I keep forgetting that it's better to pick an American celebrity that they don't know than a Japanese celebrity that they do.
9pm class had 2 people. They were both very advanced and have done a lot of travel abroad; one of them even told me she is going to Denver in a few months. That lesson was on "two-part questions", mostly talking about hobbies. One of the students even gave me a package of candy as a present! I felt so bad that I didn't have anything to give back to her... but Rita said not to worry about it.
And finally at 10:10pm we were done. Sachi had to teach me how to lock up and unlock the school, and I had to do more paperwork and pack up my stuff, so I didn't get back to Warabi station until 11pm, which was a mistake, as even the McDonald's closes at 11. I had a few choices for food -- get something to prepare from the Tobu, or get something from 7-11, or... I decided, see, there was this ramen shop that's sort of close to my house that I pass by every day on my way home and it always seems to be open even at midnight.
So I went in. The only person there was the cook, an older guy. The first thing I see is that there's a huge Hideki Matsui poster on the back wall and a Giants Power 2006 poster AND a Giants 2002 Japan Series team photo, and Nikkan Sports dailies from Masahiro Tanaka's first pro win, and one of Ichiro getting the MVP at the all-star game, and various others. I couldn't decide what to get so the cook recommended miso ramen, which sounded fine. I said in Japanese, "You like baseball? Can I look at all of these?" and excitedly babbled about all the players on the posters/articles. He seemed amused but didn't talk to me about them, so eventually I just watched the news on the TV while he cooked. And man, that was a GIGANTIC bowl of ramen, with sprouts and lots of other stuff in it. It was really good but there was a LOT of it, but I ate the entire thing, I was starving by then. He asked afterwards, "Was it good? Could you eat it?" and I cheerfully said "It was delicious! I ate it all! Thank you so much! How much does it cost?" and he told me 600 yen and I paid and continued on my way home, feeling really full, heh.
I fell asleep pretty soon after arriving home.
So this morning I woke up a little before 9 because a guy was coming by to measure a glass pane in my back door that was broken, and so I put on Koshien to watch and worked on installing ActiveSync on the laptop. And while watching Koshien I typed this entry, and that about catches us up. If you're reading this, it means my plan worked and I was able to do everything.
And then today I will head to school and... and I have to teach half the classes! I hope it goes well...
I figured out that there are a few open wireless networks on my way to Warabi station. Not many, and the notable one with a good landmark is one that seems to work from the 7-11. Now I mean, I can't just stand in the 7-11 forever, but I figure that what I'll do is, instead of going to the internet cafe for a long time, I'll write my entries here at home on my laptop, then sync them to my T-Mobile device, and then hopefully I can just upload it when I pass by the 7-11. I suppose I could even go in and buy a drink.
I just watched the opening ceremonies for the Koshien high school baseball tournament! So exciting! Funny part is that if I was still in Seattle I could watch most of the tournament over the internet, since 9am-5pm in Japan is currently 5pm-1am in Seattle. Alas, I can pretty much watch here until about 11am and then I have to leave for work. Though, I get the impression that if I have free time in the afternoon it wouldn't be hard to go find a place that has the game on TV...
Anyway, yesterday was my first day of work. I showed up super-early, at like 11:50am, despite that I didn't have to be there until 12:40pm. Sachi was pretty surprised, but I told her I wanted to drop off some stuff and then I would go get lunch. So I did that. A few blocks from the station, there is a covered shopping street called La La Garden, and I found a kaitensushi place in there, so yay! I also found a place with a Pop'n machine for 100 yen a play, so I played a game of it, too.
I got back a bit before 12:40, signed in, and then Rita and I spent like 2 hours going through paperwork and some lesson planning. For the first day, she was teaching and I was watching. We had two students in the 3pm class, both housewives. I think I screwed up once by interrupting one of the students, which may be bad because I think she was one of the ones who wasn't sure if she would renew her contract. (I was just excited since she said she loves ballroom dancing, so I said "Oh! Me too!") So, I learned a lesson from that and won't do it again. I tried very hard for the rest of the day to just listen and listen and nod and all and give people a lot of time to speak, which is important.
Our next class wasn't until 7pm, so Rita had me try to plan a class for Wednesday for the Passages book, and she worked on correcting homework. We took a break to get drinks and snacks arond 5pm. I think I came up with an okay lesson plan but I really won't know until I try it. It's pretty nerve-wracking.
The 7pm class had 5 people in it, most of whom work together at a bank. Our discussion was on bad habits -- we taught the word "procrastinate", among other things. The class eventually devolved into people talking about all the places they have lived in Japan, but they were all speaking English, so that was the important part.
The 8pm class was only 3 people. The fourth student wasn't able to come this week. For this class we were talking about verb tenses and did a "People of the Year" exercise. I realized later that I should not have picked all Japanese celebrities for my exercises. I keep forgetting that it's better to pick an American celebrity that they don't know than a Japanese celebrity that they do.
9pm class had 2 people. They were both very advanced and have done a lot of travel abroad; one of them even told me she is going to Denver in a few months. That lesson was on "two-part questions", mostly talking about hobbies. One of the students even gave me a package of candy as a present! I felt so bad that I didn't have anything to give back to her... but Rita said not to worry about it.
And finally at 10:10pm we were done. Sachi had to teach me how to lock up and unlock the school, and I had to do more paperwork and pack up my stuff, so I didn't get back to Warabi station until 11pm, which was a mistake, as even the McDonald's closes at 11. I had a few choices for food -- get something to prepare from the Tobu, or get something from 7-11, or... I decided, see, there was this ramen shop that's sort of close to my house that I pass by every day on my way home and it always seems to be open even at midnight.
So I went in. The only person there was the cook, an older guy. The first thing I see is that there's a huge Hideki Matsui poster on the back wall and a Giants Power 2006 poster AND a Giants 2002 Japan Series team photo, and Nikkan Sports dailies from Masahiro Tanaka's first pro win, and one of Ichiro getting the MVP at the all-star game, and various others. I couldn't decide what to get so the cook recommended miso ramen, which sounded fine. I said in Japanese, "You like baseball? Can I look at all of these?" and excitedly babbled about all the players on the posters/articles. He seemed amused but didn't talk to me about them, so eventually I just watched the news on the TV while he cooked. And man, that was a GIGANTIC bowl of ramen, with sprouts and lots of other stuff in it. It was really good but there was a LOT of it, but I ate the entire thing, I was starving by then. He asked afterwards, "Was it good? Could you eat it?" and I cheerfully said "It was delicious! I ate it all! Thank you so much! How much does it cost?" and he told me 600 yen and I paid and continued on my way home, feeling really full, heh.
I fell asleep pretty soon after arriving home.
So this morning I woke up a little before 9 because a guy was coming by to measure a glass pane in my back door that was broken, and so I put on Koshien to watch and worked on installing ActiveSync on the laptop. And while watching Koshien I typed this entry, and that about catches us up. If you're reading this, it means my plan worked and I was able to do everything.
And then today I will head to school and... and I have to teach half the classes! I hope it goes well...
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