I'm losing my cool ( Read more... )

I may have to go back on my promise to score a 70 on that test! I lost my review sheet with all of the questions I was going to complete!! What a waste of an afternoon! I got my homework finished, but the material covered in today's class (and tonight's homework) isn't on the test ( Read more... )

Well, I had my chemistry midterm tonight. I've been telling everybody who cares to hear that I think I rocked it. Now, I dunno what to compare it to. This course can be summed up as: "Grade 11 and Grade 12 chemistry in eight weeks." I'd never before taken chemistry ( Read more... )

Tonight we're celebrating L.'s birthday - we'll be meeting at Fuji Grand in about 90 minutes. We may go see Iron Man - word is it's pretty good ( Read more... )

Our friends with the drills and hammers are back, and the noises they make can be disruptive - when I was administering a spelling test today, comically so. M., though, caught a lucky break. Just as the word "clanking" came up in reading class, one of the workers outside started banging on a pipe with a hammer. Perfect timing ( Read more... )

It’s now the beginning of rainy season here in Japan. I had been skeptical about the idea of a “rainy season,” as the weather here has been more than temperate, but I wouldn’t call it tropical, and I had thought that rainy seasons were for places with rainforests. But I don’t really know anything about this, which is why I had dismissed the ‘season ( Read more... )

Today we had the Opening Ceremony. The children came into the gym by class. The last school year only ended two weeks ago, but even so, my old Year Fours (now Year Fives) seemed to be three inches taller. "Yeah, we're in Year Five now," they seemed to say in their gait. They oozed confidence the whole day. I think they're in for a terrific year ( Read more... )

The term officially ended today, and it ended with a whimper. We had a very short closing ceremony, a few students got awarded for their performances in the Eiken and other tests, and then we spent the morning handing back report cards and the backlog of student work. Considering that it was the last day of school, it was remarkably melancholy ( Read more... )

This evening we attempted to hold our final Democratic Individualism class in the pub. The idea exploded in the hangar, because as soon as the professor arrived we knew that we couldn't really hear or see each other very well. Anyone who wonders why the Gorsebrook isn't opened up for coursework now has the answer ( Read more... )

Wow! I had a great day yesterday (the 8th) - let me break it down!

It started with me staying up into the wee wee hours watching the midterm election on CNN. (By the way, the only channel I could get that really covered it was CNN (we don’t have Redne- Fox News on regular cable here - in fact, I don’t think it’s legally available in Canada at all ( Read more... )