uh . . .

So I have my phone in hand now. It is charged and I am connected to the rest of the country finally. . . thank gosh! It will take some getting used to though as you may imagine with it being suited for Japanese customers and all. The texting functions aren't the same, I have two choices for messaging, and messages from softbank (my carrier) are in Hiragana and kanji hehe. Its all good though. I will get used to it soon enough. One really cool thing that phones here do is use infrared technology to get contact information from other phones. So if I meet the girl of my dreams here and try to get her number; all I have to do is make sure we both have infrared on our phones and our info can be exchanged by holding our phones near each other. That's pretty cool I think. Here is what it looks like (notice the Hiragana on the key pad):




































Yesterday wasn't too eventful as far as work was concerned. Though I feel even more convinced that it will probably be sometime before I get the hang of teaching. Like any particular skill, teaching requires careful prep and A LOT of practice. I just need to be patient with myself as I linger in my metaphorical room of mediocrity for a while longer. Now, about my school.

Though I refer to it as a school, AEON Nakayama does not necessarily meat the commonly understood criteria that makes a school beyond educating pupils. I have yet to teach a class that has more than six poeple in it. All my big classes are kids classes, and my adult classes are mostly one or two students big at the most. All homework is checked in class, and since AEON is a conversation school, there is very little written work to check. Makes the 25 classes I (am supposed to) teach quite manageble. I just need to be able to "think on my toes" a lot. I like it this way so far though. In terms of location; my school takes up the 5th and 6th floors of a 6 story building. The recpetion desk, lobby, teachers room & kitchen, one class room, admin office area, and an interview room are on the fifth floor and the sixth floor is all classrooms. All my classes take place in room 7 out of 9 others(my favorit number!) ^_^ It is smaller than you are probably imagining it, but it is a good fit for our purpous here.

Today . . . hehe

Fridays at work (at the moment) are looking like "kids days." from 3 until 6 in the evening. There are parents and their children everywhere. every teacher has a class and they all seem to have at least 4 kids a peice. It gets hectic, but the kids are so cute that I don't mind. I should also note that kids are a bigger challenge for me to teach than adults. I need to be really good at not only managing the flow of class, but making sure my younger students with short attention spans pay attention. I am up to the challenge, but it will definitely be quite the challenging task.

Speaking of being challenged; life threw me an interesting curveball today. I was trying to show my youngest kids class how to play "patty cake." To make the game easier for as well as seeming less imposing on my shorter partner, I squatted down to play with my student. No biggie, but as I was talking to two of the kids who began to goof off, my helper (a maybe 7 or 8 year old girl) patted my crotch exactly where my nuts are . . . WHAT THE HELL?!!! I didn't over react or make a big scene about it( I actually just casually but firmly said "quit that"), but what the hell moves a 7 or 8 year old girl to pat her teachers balls? Serously! I was taken completely off guard. It isn't going to be a problem for me or anything, but I won't be forgetting this event for a while I'm sure. Geez

Well my weekend starts tomorrow night and I am looking hella forward to seeing my friend who is here from the states. I'll be sure to let you know how it goes and get some good pics up ^_^