under the weather
I can't go 3 months in Japan without getting sick it seems.
I think it was last Sunday's workload that did me in. I agreed to be an interviewer for the annual ECC examinations, in which all the private teachers from the area bring their students in to be tested by a real "gaikokujin" in a one-on-one interview. Not that the interviews are terribly difficult for me, but after the first 60 kids or so I kinda wanted to hang myself. Many of the kids are far too young (some were as young as 4yrs old) or just too nervous. They tell us not to use any words or phrasing not specified in the test booklets, to ask the question 3 times if they didn't get it, and give hints for those completely clueless- I'd say about 70% of the kids I interviewed fell into the completely-clueless-category. Anywho, 8 hours with 300 kids... by the end of the day my face hurt from smiling and I was mildly delirious.
Today I'm suppose to be at my elementary school which is prolly the worst place I could be at the moment, so I requested to change my classes to another day. I didn't want to sacrifice another one of my vacation days so I'm sitting uselessly at my desk at the junior high now with a fever and no voice.
I shouldn't make this weekend out to sound so miserable though, it was actually quite good despite the exams. Ivy's birthday was on Sat and Ross's was last Thurs, so our region celebrated on Fri by going to an Italian restaurant owned by an older woman with a little flat-faced, bug-eyed Chinese dog. I guess we were the most exciting thing that's happened there for awhile 'cause they put us on their homepage. Our celebration was complete with 2 homemade cakes made by Amanda:
it says "ross 'n ivy," in pocky.
And then of course we had to have more cake to celebrate ivy's actual birthday on Sat:
Did I mention it snowed again?
it snowed a lot, on Thursday mostly. It didn't phase my students it seems, but it was pretty exciting for the 2 days it lasted... el nino melted it all.
If I had not been in Takaoka all day Sunday interviewing small children, I would've been participating on stage at the annual JET festival in Toyama with Ivy and Danielle, but alas, I missed out. I was at least able to see their dance the couple times Danielle came over to practice:
Although we were all busy with different things Sunday we ended the evening together at an Indian restaurant in Takaoka we've been meaning to go to forever. I was probably just giddy from lack of sleep among other things, but it was an abnormally entertaining dinner.
hai, owari.
I think it was last Sunday's workload that did me in. I agreed to be an interviewer for the annual ECC examinations, in which all the private teachers from the area bring their students in to be tested by a real "gaikokujin" in a one-on-one interview. Not that the interviews are terribly difficult for me, but after the first 60 kids or so I kinda wanted to hang myself. Many of the kids are far too young (some were as young as 4yrs old) or just too nervous. They tell us not to use any words or phrasing not specified in the test booklets, to ask the question 3 times if they didn't get it, and give hints for those completely clueless- I'd say about 70% of the kids I interviewed fell into the completely-clueless-category. Anywho, 8 hours with 300 kids... by the end of the day my face hurt from smiling and I was mildly delirious.
Today I'm suppose to be at my elementary school which is prolly the worst place I could be at the moment, so I requested to change my classes to another day. I didn't want to sacrifice another one of my vacation days so I'm sitting uselessly at my desk at the junior high now with a fever and no voice.
I shouldn't make this weekend out to sound so miserable though, it was actually quite good despite the exams. Ivy's birthday was on Sat and Ross's was last Thurs, so our region celebrated on Fri by going to an Italian restaurant owned by an older woman with a little flat-faced, bug-eyed Chinese dog. I guess we were the most exciting thing that's happened there for awhile 'cause they put us on their homepage. Our celebration was complete with 2 homemade cakes made by Amanda:
it says "ross 'n ivy," in pocky.
And then of course we had to have more cake to celebrate ivy's actual birthday on Sat:
Did I mention it snowed again?
it snowed a lot, on Thursday mostly. It didn't phase my students it seems, but it was pretty exciting for the 2 days it lasted... el nino melted it all.
If I had not been in Takaoka all day Sunday interviewing small children, I would've been participating on stage at the annual JET festival in Toyama with Ivy and Danielle, but alas, I missed out. I was at least able to see their dance the couple times Danielle came over to practice:
Although we were all busy with different things Sunday we ended the evening together at an Indian restaurant in Takaoka we've been meaning to go to forever. I was probably just giddy from lack of sleep among other things, but it was an abnormally entertaining dinner.
hai, owari.
Comments
Your story is so special for me ..
hehe..