Well, life is busy as usual. I still have so much to learn about teaching. Sometimes I feel like I'm starting to get the hang of it, and other times I feel so overwhelmed by how much I still have to learn. The students are mostly great, though. I have a hard time with the 3rd graders (9th grade in America), because they're either very shy or "too cool," but they're still good kids. They just don't like to participate. :P
Last week was quite busy. Thursday the whole school walked to the culture center for a concert. It was a string quartet with two French horns playing several Mozart pieces. I liked it a lot, however the students seemed to be having a bit of trouble staying awake. Haha. Then on Friday, I went with the other English teachers at my school (the Japanese ones and the other American, Ken) to the other junior high school in my town, Yashiro, and watched another American teacher's class. It was good to see another teacher like me in action, but I guess I was expecting him to be worlds ahead of me. I don't think he necessarily was. He does have one advantage, though, and that's smaller class size. My classes are 30-36 students and his was only 24 students.
Anyway, yesterday was Saturday and I met up with another teacher like me, Eric, in Matsumoto. We did some shopping and spent a while hanging out at the park by the castle. It was a really nice day, perfect for just listening to the birds and watching people go by. Lots of foreigners visit the castle so that was kind of funny to see. I helped Eric a bit with his Japanese because he hardly knows any. Hopefully he'll pick up on it quickly and be able to communicate okay.
Today is Sunday and I haven't done a lot. Cleaning, laundry, and shopping basically. I did finally buy a rice cooker! I've been wanting one since I came but just never got around to getting it. I looked up online how to use it and it seems really straightforward. It even came with a cute measuring cup and plastic rice paddle. :) I'm planning to make some rice for dinner so we'll see how that goes, lol.
This week looks to be pretty normal, busy but without any special things going on (as far as I can tell), so it should go okay. Summer is definitely creeping up and pushing spring out of the picture. Soon it will be June, when the rainy season starts, so I have something to look forward to... not. XP
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| Some posters I bought that came from New Zealand! They're each about 8x10 inches I think. |
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| Mt. Fuji at sunset |
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| A large koi at Matsumoto Castle |
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| Matsumoto Castle |
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| The castle from a different angle |
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| My rice cooker!! | |
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| With the lid open |
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| It has a cool handle, although I'm not sure why. :P |
Aw! It's a cute rice cooker! Have you used it a lot since you got it? Love the new posters! Can't go wrong with Miyazaki.
ReplyDeleteI've used it a few times now. The rice it makes is totally perfect. :) Apparently you can cook other rice-like dishes in it, like rice porridge, brown rice, curry, etc. Haven't tried any of those yet, though.
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