Day 9 and 10-Stress! Busy!

I am so busy! Who would have thought that having a 8-4 job and a part-time English conversation job would keep me so busy? I'm behind on posting and I'm going to cheat!! THIS IS TWO POSTS THAT I OWE!

Yesterday I gave my speech in front of THE WHOLE SCHOOL! Otobe JHS was around 290 students. No big deal, right? Right. Mirumae JHS is OVER 500 STUDENTS! What a big difference those extra 200 kids makes...Not to mention twice the number of teachers. But I had a decent speech. AND a super nice 3rd year gave a welcome speech in English on behalf of the whole school! He did a great job and his excitement made me excited!

I met four of the five 3rd-year classes yesterday. What a range of personalities they had! The first class I went to was super excited and good at English, while the second class I went to was super shy and quiet. The other two were a mix of slightly shy but also chatty.

At the end of the day was ooen practice. Ooen is cheering. In American schools we have cheerleaders. In Japan they have the Ooen-bu (Cheering club) that leads the WHOLE school in cheers. It turns out next week is the city-wide track meet, and each school will come a cheer for their students. The whole school goes. So, all 500+ of my students will be there (plus 290+ of my old students). I got to cheer with them yesterday! The English teachers stuck me with some third-grade girls and I followed along, in my skirt and button-up shirt. It must have been a sight to see!

Today was a testing day so I got to sit at my desk and reply to the 3rd-year student's self-introductions. There were a lot of "Nice to meet you, ~~" and "What kind of music do you like to listen to?" and "I'm glad you like English!" replies from me. A surprising number of kids actually wrote "My favorite subject is English. It is interesting" so I *guess* that's a good sign.

xoxo

boring post, gomen!


Look what I found on a recycle bin:

oh so famous!

p.s. Interesting (boring) note: My Otobe students call me Miss Forman, and my Mirumae students call me Miss Lydia. I will always be able to tell where my students are from even if I don't recognize their faces! This is great news (except, I've pretty much got all my Otobe student's faces memorized...I think ~_~::)