*takes a tentative step out from the shadows*
Sarah: Hello?
*89 weeks of not posting echo back* HELLO????
Sarah: EIGHTY-NINE WEEKS?!?!?
*echo* Why in the WORLD did you spell out the number?!
Sarah: Well I live in Japan now...
*echo* Yes...
Sarah: Actually I've been in Japan since summer of 2006...
*echo* ...I see.
Sarah: And I work at a junior high school in Shiga...more specifically in Shigaraki...it's famous for it's pottery...and...tanuki...
*echo* You're getting off track. Why did you spell out the number? No one does that anymore--well unless it's 1-10 or a multiple of 10.
Sarah: Well they expect me to know and do stuff like that working as an English teacher at a junior high!
*echo* Dude, you even hyphenated the number.
Sarah: Well that's the proper way to do it!
*echo* Well look who's all getting all high and mighty, Miss-I-didn't-post-for-EIGHTY-NINE-WEEKS.
Sarah: ...Uh yeah about that...
*echo* ...You forgot about me.
Sarah: No! No, I would never do that! I thought of you every day...
*echo, tearfully* I thought I would hear from you as soon as you got to Japan...
Sarah: I'm sorry! I just...well first I didn't have internet until November, that kinda put a stop to things...and then my sisters came...and then suddenly it was December....and I thought I would start fresh at New Years by posting then...
*echo* But you didn't.
Sarah: ...No, I didn't. I don't have a good reason why either.
*echo* You realize those 89 weeks can never be properly chronicled.
Sarah: You put that numerically on purpose...
*echo* You also realize it's freaking TWO THOUSAND EIGHT.
Sarah: Ok no one writes the year out like that, that's just weird...
*echo* So what made you decide to come back?
Sarah: Oh um ha ha well two things. One, I wrote this humorous email to the Koka Block, and it kinda reminded me of how much I enjoy writing...
*echo* I don't believe this. You were amused by your OWN WRITING enough to jump start you into picking me up again?!
Sarah: Uh...and two, my good friend Jamie told me to, and I finally listened.
*echo* You realize because it's been 89 weeks with no updates that I have no idea who Jamie is.
Sarah: She's my good friend, lives in a nearby town, also is an junior high ALT like me, I practically live at her place on the weekends. No scratch that, I do live there, I spend more than one night! I'm headed over there tomorrow actually...
*echo* Ok, Friend Jamie. Check. Only...about a 1,000,000 points about your life in Japan to go.
Sarah: Will you cut that out?
*echo* Oh I'm SO sorry.
Sarah: I'm sensing some bitterness.
*echo* You think!? You've been having all sorts of adventures in Japan and I don't know about any of it!! You've really let me down.
Sarah: I'm not exactly proud of myself either. But I wanna start over!
*echo, icily* Is an English Teacher allowed to write 'wanna?'
Sarah: Well, I taught the 2nensei (the second years) 'gonna' today, so yes, I would say I am.
*echo* You taught them 'gonna?'
Sarah: Not only that, they *got* it!
*echo* Smart kids.
Sarah: When they wanna be. :) No really, I love my students. I'm staying another year here actually.
*echo* Are you GONNA write in this LJ from now on then? Record your *ahem* THIRD year despite the first two years being left solely to your rapidly failing memory and then as the years dwindle on and you grow older and the memories grow more distant until they almost completely vanish...or have become so mutated with time that you couldn't even be sure you were remembering those memories correctly?
Sarah: ...What?
*echo* Exactly. And that's all providing you don't get Alzheimer's.
Sarah: Charming. To be fair, it's February, so it's more like one and a half years...
*echo* Whatever.
Sarah: But I'm really gonna try from now on! Seriously!
*echo* Time will tell. For now, why don't you give us a summary of your life? It'll be a start at least for the poor Friends you deserted.
Sarah: Alright, here it goes...As I mentioned, I am now living in Japan. I've been here since August of 2006, and am in my second year of being on JET. I'm an ALT (assistant language teacher) at a medium sized junior high school. A.KA. I teach English. I live in Shigaraki, which is a small town in the mountains (literally), but is famous across Japan for its ceramics. It's pretty cool to live in a remote yet well-known town, and there are pottery shops everywhere. It made buying Christmas presents easy in er...2006. (I've had two Christmases in Japan now oops.)
Anyway, I am really enjoying my life and job here. I really really like my job despite the challenges--there are some tough kids at Shigaraki. They can make class difficult. You can't kick students out of class if they misbehave so...yeah, you just gotta deal. Or not deal, but you you gotta do something--I am against ignoring them like so many teachers do here. I'm slowly figuring out how to work with all kinds of kids, even the tough ones. I have a lot of failures, but the successes make it all worth while. Between that and the enjoyment I've found teaching English (yes I said *enjoyment,* I am a teaching nerd now), I have really come to love living and working in Shigaraki.
That's not to say it's easy. I have rough days. I have stress. My supervisor for this school year is a wonderful teacher who has taught me a lot about the field, from presenting myself to the class to how to relate to and read students... I seriously became a better teacher because of her. But she also has er...caused me a lot of stress. I'm not sure, come end of March when the school year ends in Japan, if she is going to be transferred. I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing.
But enough about that. Although a big part of my life here is teaching--I think I am going to go into the ESL field when(ever) I return to the states. Still, I am living in *Japan* which is something I take for granted almost after a year and a half. Kyoto is only an hour and a half train ride away--which sounds like a long time I know, but that's CLOSE. I'm very lucky.
Just living in Japan has been a challenge, it's nothing like when I studied abroad. I would say it took me a good year to get used to living here. It's not so much knowing the language as it is living on my own for the first time. On that note, I live in a traditional Japanese style house (I say house, but think 'condo' because that is the size of a typical house in Japan.) It has traditional tatami floors and traditional sliding doors and my traditional butt is sore from sitting on the floor within the sliding doors of the room in the house that Jack built.
Haha. :D
My house also traditionally has paper thin walls, no insulation, and no central heating/air conditioning. So my house is traditionally freezing cold in the winter (and ridiculously hot and humid in the summer.) This is nothing new in Japan, mind you. I'm just giving you an idea of what my life is like when I go home after work. As it is winter, it is damn cold at the moment. (Shigaraki boasts to be the coldest area in the Kinki region. Lucky me.) I have secluded myself to living in one room--my 'heated' room. I literally live in this room. My futon (bedding) and my kotatsu (heated table) and the TV and my laptop are all in this room. I only move when I absolutely have to. Today was a little warmer, I can only *just* see my breath and my fingers actually haven't gone tingly-cold from typing like they did before.
Oh if only I was kidding. I love feeling like I'm camping inside my house. :P
I sound like I'm miserable, but it's not so bad. It's amazing what you can get used to. And then brag about when, say, your sisters come visit and complain they're cold. 'What? You can't even see you're breath yet! It's still summer as far as I'm concerned!' you can say flippantly.
I should end on a positive note. Well, a long time has passed, and it depresses me to think I missed a lot of chances to write about all the amazing, astonishing, shocking, frustrating, infuriating, thought-provoking, moving, and above all fun experiences I've had so far. For me, here has been some especially memorable ones (in no particular order):
--My first English class (my JTE (Japanese Teacher of English, I team teach with a JTE in the classroom) warned me just before I entered 'This class is a little tough.' She just gave me determination to 'win them over.' I was crazy genki, but I was myself, and I made them crack up. It was a good intro to how classes were gonna be in the future--for better or worse.
--My winter break 2006 trip to Thailand with friends. I swam in the ocean for the first time. On Christmas.
--Japanese class. I love my sensei! I'm sad it's only once a week, and we don't meet in winter...
--Watching multiple Japanese dramas. I am hooked. I recall fond 'HanaDan' (Hana Yori Dango) nights at Jamie's especially...
--Finding the mother of all mukade (centipedes) in my bathroom. It must have been at least 8 inches long. I was at a completely loss as to how to get rid of something as big as a small bird, and called my supervisor. She advised me to use my vacuum cleaner. After working up the nerve to turn on the vacuum, and then to my horror finding the damn mukade was TOO BIG and DIDN'T EVEN BUDGE when I had it on high power...I called my supervisor back, and she and her husband came over and rescued me.
--Finding a cockroach in my kitchen, freaking out like hell, then going to buy traps...then finding it shimmying along a rafter and turning the vacuum on it. Unlike the mukade, to my horrendous delight, cockroaches have nothing to them and I sucked that bugger up like a dust bunny. Then when I realized what I had done, that I had solved my cockroach problem by myself...and that I now had a live cockroach in the bag of my vacuum...I dropped the vacuum attachment I was holding and let myself scream. Never have I felt so revolted and independent as at that moment.
--Noticing that a 3nensei boy had been coming into the teacher's room with what appeared to be panic attacks...similar to what I used to get. Finally I decided to talk to him (with the aid of my supervisor, who was his English teacher.) Since I knew what he was going through, I thought I might pass along the advice I got. That went ok. But not more than a week later, I walked into the teacher's room and he was there again, inhaling and exhaling into a paper bag. Obviously another attack. Poor kid. But it's like all the teacher's were just letting him be--the exact opposite of what you need when you feel like that. I should know. So as soon as he lowered the bag and I got up the nerve (I won't pretend I wasn't hesitant to approach him when I wasn't sure what to do, or even if it was the right thing to do)...I went over and tried to strike up a conversation with him. Something completely unrelated to how he was, I think it was about Harry Potter. I went and got my DS (it has a Japanese dictionary 'game' that I use) to look up some words, and once I assured him it was my dictionary (his eyes went wide when he saw it was a DS-- then he was eying the other teachers nervously), he was quite curious. I didn't know what I was doing at all, just knew that I needed to get the kid's mind off of whatever was sending him into these attacks. I think I succeeded that day. And more. He's now a student that I talk to regularly--he's one of few that actually comes to me at my desk to talk. He used to be very poor at English, and didn't study, and would freak out before exams (hence the attacks.) But my supervisor, his teacher, was firm with him, and he began to really try, to really study. He was at a really low level. He still struggles I know, but he's made major improvement. Best of all he doesn't get those attacks anymore. He's one of my favorite students, kinda geeky and silly, a little gawky and such--as unconfident fifteen year olds can be. But somehow, and this sounds weird I know, I'm comfortable talking with him. There are students you have to 'force' conversation with, but he's not one of them. He's graduating this year. I'll miss him next year. He's one of the several students I know by name and not just by face: Takahiro. He's a good kid. I hope high school is better for him.
--I had a hell--a HELL--of a time in Sentaku (Elective English) 2 last year. There were mostly kids who just didn't give a damn in that class, and I had no idea how to deal with that. But one boy, rebel though he was, had some quality about him that didn't completely reject me like the others did. And once, when I plunked a worksheet or something down in front of him, and cheerfully told him to do it, and he looked at me and cheerfully told me he would...and then I looked at him. And him at me. And we both cracked up at the same time. That was possibly the beginning of understanding between him and I. He didn't study all through junior high, and it kinda breaks me heart because recently he has been. And yesterday in Sentaku 3 (he's a 3nensei now) he was trying his damnedest to speak English with me for the first time. I was thrilled, and I did my damnedest too, trying to understand and help him say what he wanted. But I could have also cried. Oh why does it have to be February when he has an epiphany? And he graduates in March... He's another name I know. Kaito. He was also one of the first students to call out to me when I arrived in summer 2006. He said to call him 'Mike'--I didn't get it at the time. (Mike is a character in their English book.) And he WAS 'Mike' to me until I learned his real name. :)
--Trip to Korea to visit my cousin who was living there at the time. It was a lot of fun, and I got to see both my Georgia cousins!
--Seeing 'Wicked'--in Japanese. I saw it with Yuri way back in winter 2006. It was cool then. The Japanese version was cool, too. I recently finished the book, and am onto 'Son of a Witch.'
--Having all the various people over my stay here come visit me. My sisters, my cousin, my aunt and uncle, my mom and dad, Yuri... People ask me if I get homesick living so far away from home. Most of the time I'm ok, though I admit I was a little blue around the holidays. But having people come visit me is what really saves me from getting serious cases of homesickness. My parents are coming in a month, and I can't wait! :D
I could write pages and pages and pages probably. You might have noticed my 'school memories' are long and winded--it's hard to say in a nutshell the effect my students have made on me. There are many little moments, everyday. Some are bigger than others, but just the feeling that students want to talk to me and make an effort to do so is...well it's flattering to be sure, but there's more to it than just getting an ego boost. I guess in the end I don't have a lot of confidence that I am a 'sucessful' ALT. I told you, I work at a tough school. The students are rebellious and don't want to study, nor do they have much motivation to. Last year I wasn't so good at approaching them and speaking English because I never got 'vibes' they wanted to. But it's getting better. Seriously. I'm grateful for that alone, and not sure it's because of me or my efforts. But I like to think I'm doing something. :) So when I have students who speak to me, even just hello, it cheers me on. I'm unsure of myself, but I don't want to give up. I guess that's why I know I want to be a teacher.
...Well, it's not the same as diligently writing in LJ for er...a year and a half. But I'm gonna seriously, seriously make an effort to write. I forgot how fun and er...therapeutic writing in LJ can be. And really, I do want a record of my time here. So I regret that I took so long to do so but as Jamie says, 'better late than never!'
*echo* When you post this, I guess I'll disappear, huh?
Sarah: Yup. Because it won't be 89 weeks anymore!
*echo* What happened to spelling out numbers?
Sarah: It's two in the morning. It was easier.
*89 weeks of not posting echo back* HELLO????
Sarah: EIGHTY-NINE WEEKS?!?!?
*echo* Why in the WORLD did you spell out the number?!
Sarah: Well I live in Japan now...
*echo* Yes...
Sarah: Actually I've been in Japan since summer of 2006...
*echo* ...I see.
Sarah: And I work at a junior high school in Shiga...more specifically in Shigaraki...it's famous for it's pottery...and...tanuki...
*echo* You're getting off track. Why did you spell out the number? No one does that anymore--well unless it's 1-10 or a multiple of 10.
Sarah: Well they expect me to know and do stuff like that working as an English teacher at a junior high!
*echo* Dude, you even hyphenated the number.
Sarah: Well that's the proper way to do it!
*echo* Well look who's all getting all high and mighty, Miss-I-didn't-post-for-EIGHTY-NINE-WEEKS.
Sarah: ...Uh yeah about that...
*echo* ...You forgot about me.
Sarah: No! No, I would never do that! I thought of you every day...
*echo, tearfully* I thought I would hear from you as soon as you got to Japan...
Sarah: I'm sorry! I just...well first I didn't have internet until November, that kinda put a stop to things...and then my sisters came...and then suddenly it was December....and I thought I would start fresh at New Years by posting then...
*echo* But you didn't.
Sarah: ...No, I didn't. I don't have a good reason why either.
*echo* You realize those 89 weeks can never be properly chronicled.
Sarah: You put that numerically on purpose...
*echo* You also realize it's freaking TWO THOUSAND EIGHT.
Sarah: Ok no one writes the year out like that, that's just weird...
*echo* So what made you decide to come back?
Sarah: Oh um ha ha well two things. One, I wrote this humorous email to the Koka Block, and it kinda reminded me of how much I enjoy writing...
*echo* I don't believe this. You were amused by your OWN WRITING enough to jump start you into picking me up again?!
Sarah: Uh...and two, my good friend Jamie told me to, and I finally listened.
*echo* You realize because it's been 89 weeks with no updates that I have no idea who Jamie is.
Sarah: She's my good friend, lives in a nearby town, also is an junior high ALT like me, I practically live at her place on the weekends. No scratch that, I do live there, I spend more than one night! I'm headed over there tomorrow actually...
*echo* Ok, Friend Jamie. Check. Only...about a 1,000,000 points about your life in Japan to go.
Sarah: Will you cut that out?
*echo* Oh I'm SO sorry.
Sarah: I'm sensing some bitterness.
*echo* You think!? You've been having all sorts of adventures in Japan and I don't know about any of it!! You've really let me down.
Sarah: I'm not exactly proud of myself either. But I wanna start over!
*echo, icily* Is an English Teacher allowed to write 'wanna?'
Sarah: Well, I taught the 2nensei (the second years) 'gonna' today, so yes, I would say I am.
*echo* You taught them 'gonna?'
Sarah: Not only that, they *got* it!
*echo* Smart kids.
Sarah: When they wanna be. :) No really, I love my students. I'm staying another year here actually.
*echo* Are you GONNA write in this LJ from now on then? Record your *ahem* THIRD year despite the first two years being left solely to your rapidly failing memory and then as the years dwindle on and you grow older and the memories grow more distant until they almost completely vanish...or have become so mutated with time that you couldn't even be sure you were remembering those memories correctly?
Sarah: ...What?
*echo* Exactly. And that's all providing you don't get Alzheimer's.
Sarah: Charming. To be fair, it's February, so it's more like one and a half years...
*echo* Whatever.
Sarah: But I'm really gonna try from now on! Seriously!
*echo* Time will tell. For now, why don't you give us a summary of your life? It'll be a start at least for the poor Friends you deserted.
Sarah: Alright, here it goes...As I mentioned, I am now living in Japan. I've been here since August of 2006, and am in my second year of being on JET. I'm an ALT (assistant language teacher) at a medium sized junior high school. A.KA. I teach English. I live in Shigaraki, which is a small town in the mountains (literally), but is famous across Japan for its ceramics. It's pretty cool to live in a remote yet well-known town, and there are pottery shops everywhere. It made buying Christmas presents easy in er...2006. (I've had two Christmases in Japan now oops.)
Anyway, I am really enjoying my life and job here. I really really like my job despite the challenges--there are some tough kids at Shigaraki. They can make class difficult. You can't kick students out of class if they misbehave so...yeah, you just gotta deal. Or not deal, but you you gotta do something--I am against ignoring them like so many teachers do here. I'm slowly figuring out how to work with all kinds of kids, even the tough ones. I have a lot of failures, but the successes make it all worth while. Between that and the enjoyment I've found teaching English (yes I said *enjoyment,* I am a teaching nerd now), I have really come to love living and working in Shigaraki.
That's not to say it's easy. I have rough days. I have stress. My supervisor for this school year is a wonderful teacher who has taught me a lot about the field, from presenting myself to the class to how to relate to and read students... I seriously became a better teacher because of her. But she also has er...caused me a lot of stress. I'm not sure, come end of March when the school year ends in Japan, if she is going to be transferred. I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing.
But enough about that. Although a big part of my life here is teaching--I think I am going to go into the ESL field when(ever) I return to the states. Still, I am living in *Japan* which is something I take for granted almost after a year and a half. Kyoto is only an hour and a half train ride away--which sounds like a long time I know, but that's CLOSE. I'm very lucky.
Just living in Japan has been a challenge, it's nothing like when I studied abroad. I would say it took me a good year to get used to living here. It's not so much knowing the language as it is living on my own for the first time. On that note, I live in a traditional Japanese style house (I say house, but think 'condo' because that is the size of a typical house in Japan.) It has traditional tatami floors and traditional sliding doors and my traditional butt is sore from sitting on the floor within the sliding doors of the room in the house that Jack built.
Haha. :D
My house also traditionally has paper thin walls, no insulation, and no central heating/air conditioning. So my house is traditionally freezing cold in the winter (and ridiculously hot and humid in the summer.) This is nothing new in Japan, mind you. I'm just giving you an idea of what my life is like when I go home after work. As it is winter, it is damn cold at the moment. (Shigaraki boasts to be the coldest area in the Kinki region. Lucky me.) I have secluded myself to living in one room--my 'heated' room. I literally live in this room. My futon (bedding) and my kotatsu (heated table) and the TV and my laptop are all in this room. I only move when I absolutely have to. Today was a little warmer, I can only *just* see my breath and my fingers actually haven't gone tingly-cold from typing like they did before.
Oh if only I was kidding. I love feeling like I'm camping inside my house. :P
I sound like I'm miserable, but it's not so bad. It's amazing what you can get used to. And then brag about when, say, your sisters come visit and complain they're cold. 'What? You can't even see you're breath yet! It's still summer as far as I'm concerned!' you can say flippantly.
I should end on a positive note. Well, a long time has passed, and it depresses me to think I missed a lot of chances to write about all the amazing, astonishing, shocking, frustrating, infuriating, thought-provoking, moving, and above all fun experiences I've had so far. For me, here has been some especially memorable ones (in no particular order):
--My first English class (my JTE (Japanese Teacher of English, I team teach with a JTE in the classroom) warned me just before I entered 'This class is a little tough.' She just gave me determination to 'win them over.' I was crazy genki, but I was myself, and I made them crack up. It was a good intro to how classes were gonna be in the future--for better or worse.
--My winter break 2006 trip to Thailand with friends. I swam in the ocean for the first time. On Christmas.
--Japanese class. I love my sensei! I'm sad it's only once a week, and we don't meet in winter...
--Watching multiple Japanese dramas. I am hooked. I recall fond 'HanaDan' (Hana Yori Dango) nights at Jamie's especially...
--Finding the mother of all mukade (centipedes) in my bathroom. It must have been at least 8 inches long. I was at a completely loss as to how to get rid of something as big as a small bird, and called my supervisor. She advised me to use my vacuum cleaner. After working up the nerve to turn on the vacuum, and then to my horror finding the damn mukade was TOO BIG and DIDN'T EVEN BUDGE when I had it on high power...I called my supervisor back, and she and her husband came over and rescued me.
--Finding a cockroach in my kitchen, freaking out like hell, then going to buy traps...then finding it shimmying along a rafter and turning the vacuum on it. Unlike the mukade, to my horrendous delight, cockroaches have nothing to them and I sucked that bugger up like a dust bunny. Then when I realized what I had done, that I had solved my cockroach problem by myself...and that I now had a live cockroach in the bag of my vacuum...I dropped the vacuum attachment I was holding and let myself scream. Never have I felt so revolted and independent as at that moment.
--Noticing that a 3nensei boy had been coming into the teacher's room with what appeared to be panic attacks...similar to what I used to get. Finally I decided to talk to him (with the aid of my supervisor, who was his English teacher.) Since I knew what he was going through, I thought I might pass along the advice I got. That went ok. But not more than a week later, I walked into the teacher's room and he was there again, inhaling and exhaling into a paper bag. Obviously another attack. Poor kid. But it's like all the teacher's were just letting him be--the exact opposite of what you need when you feel like that. I should know. So as soon as he lowered the bag and I got up the nerve (I won't pretend I wasn't hesitant to approach him when I wasn't sure what to do, or even if it was the right thing to do)...I went over and tried to strike up a conversation with him. Something completely unrelated to how he was, I think it was about Harry Potter. I went and got my DS (it has a Japanese dictionary 'game' that I use) to look up some words, and once I assured him it was my dictionary (his eyes went wide when he saw it was a DS-- then he was eying the other teachers nervously), he was quite curious. I didn't know what I was doing at all, just knew that I needed to get the kid's mind off of whatever was sending him into these attacks. I think I succeeded that day. And more. He's now a student that I talk to regularly--he's one of few that actually comes to me at my desk to talk. He used to be very poor at English, and didn't study, and would freak out before exams (hence the attacks.) But my supervisor, his teacher, was firm with him, and he began to really try, to really study. He was at a really low level. He still struggles I know, but he's made major improvement. Best of all he doesn't get those attacks anymore. He's one of my favorite students, kinda geeky and silly, a little gawky and such--as unconfident fifteen year olds can be. But somehow, and this sounds weird I know, I'm comfortable talking with him. There are students you have to 'force' conversation with, but he's not one of them. He's graduating this year. I'll miss him next year. He's one of the several students I know by name and not just by face: Takahiro. He's a good kid. I hope high school is better for him.
--I had a hell--a HELL--of a time in Sentaku (Elective English) 2 last year. There were mostly kids who just didn't give a damn in that class, and I had no idea how to deal with that. But one boy, rebel though he was, had some quality about him that didn't completely reject me like the others did. And once, when I plunked a worksheet or something down in front of him, and cheerfully told him to do it, and he looked at me and cheerfully told me he would...and then I looked at him. And him at me. And we both cracked up at the same time. That was possibly the beginning of understanding between him and I. He didn't study all through junior high, and it kinda breaks me heart because recently he has been. And yesterday in Sentaku 3 (he's a 3nensei now) he was trying his damnedest to speak English with me for the first time. I was thrilled, and I did my damnedest too, trying to understand and help him say what he wanted. But I could have also cried. Oh why does it have to be February when he has an epiphany? And he graduates in March... He's another name I know. Kaito. He was also one of the first students to call out to me when I arrived in summer 2006. He said to call him 'Mike'--I didn't get it at the time. (Mike is a character in their English book.) And he WAS 'Mike' to me until I learned his real name. :)
--Trip to Korea to visit my cousin who was living there at the time. It was a lot of fun, and I got to see both my Georgia cousins!
--Seeing 'Wicked'--in Japanese. I saw it with Yuri way back in winter 2006. It was cool then. The Japanese version was cool, too. I recently finished the book, and am onto 'Son of a Witch.'
--Having all the various people over my stay here come visit me. My sisters, my cousin, my aunt and uncle, my mom and dad, Yuri... People ask me if I get homesick living so far away from home. Most of the time I'm ok, though I admit I was a little blue around the holidays. But having people come visit me is what really saves me from getting serious cases of homesickness. My parents are coming in a month, and I can't wait! :D
I could write pages and pages and pages probably. You might have noticed my 'school memories' are long and winded--it's hard to say in a nutshell the effect my students have made on me. There are many little moments, everyday. Some are bigger than others, but just the feeling that students want to talk to me and make an effort to do so is...well it's flattering to be sure, but there's more to it than just getting an ego boost. I guess in the end I don't have a lot of confidence that I am a 'sucessful' ALT. I told you, I work at a tough school. The students are rebellious and don't want to study, nor do they have much motivation to. Last year I wasn't so good at approaching them and speaking English because I never got 'vibes' they wanted to. But it's getting better. Seriously. I'm grateful for that alone, and not sure it's because of me or my efforts. But I like to think I'm doing something. :) So when I have students who speak to me, even just hello, it cheers me on. I'm unsure of myself, but I don't want to give up. I guess that's why I know I want to be a teacher.
...Well, it's not the same as diligently writing in LJ for er...a year and a half. But I'm gonna seriously, seriously make an effort to write. I forgot how fun and er...therapeutic writing in LJ can be. And really, I do want a record of my time here. So I regret that I took so long to do so but as Jamie says, 'better late than never!'
*echo* When you post this, I guess I'll disappear, huh?
Sarah: Yup. Because it won't be 89 weeks anymore!
*echo* What happened to spelling out numbers?
Sarah: It's two in the morning. It was easier.