Roses, Stingray, and School

So I’ve been neglecting the day in the life portion of the blog. I decided that 6 daily updates would be semi (if not really) boring, so I’ll just condense the rest of the schools. This week I’m in the middle of my JHS rotation. I’ll spend 9 days at the 3 junior high schools. Today, I’m at the largest school with over 300 students. There are 15 different English classes, so there is a lot going on. At this school I’m basically used as a tape player or someone with a native tongue, to give the students a change of pace. However, right now, I don’t mind this. I get to walk around the classroom and help edit papers or encourage the kids to get on track and not talk with their friends. And to me, I enjoy helping them one on one rather than speaking in front of the class for the whole period. Thursday was supposed to be quite hectic, teaching during all 6 periods; however, I found myself in the teachers’ room after lunch without any classes to teach. One class was having a test and the last period of the day was canceled. I will say this, I can’t believe how often school days are cut short here! It seems like every time I’m at a different school something new is going on. Thursday and Friday were 45 min periods instead of 50 mins and they only had 5 classes instead of 6. I’m starting to question whether Japanese students really have that much more school than American students. It’s one thing to schedule school for 300 minutes a day, but somehow it seems like they only meet that about half the time.

Side note of the day: this is my third rotation through jhs and I must say, I like it more and more every time. The jhs girls are very funny and incredibly outgoing...maybe they are warming up to me!

This weekend the Watanabe’s took me to the Rose Garden in our town. My understanding is that this Flower Garden is the largest in Japan (it’s HUGE). For the middle of November, most of the roses looked pretty good, but I can’t wait to go back in May or June when there is a lot more. I must say that I don’t have anything cool to blog about for this week, just a normal week. I did rack up the skype hours with my family and friends. On Sunday I spent almost 5 hours watching college football. It was AMAZING! I forgot how much I love college football. My one adventurous thing for the week: I tried stingray! I can honestly say that it was better than I expected. It was surprisingly sweet and the texture reminded me of dried pineapple (actually it looked just like it).

This brings a new meaning to the term "tree hugger" :)