I haven't really forgotten you!!

Wednesday

I bet you all thought now that Daniel is in Japan with me I've forgotten all about you! You're wrong. Mostly wrong anyway. It has been great having Daniel around and I did put off writing because it was great spending time with him and showing him around. Unfortunately I put it off for too long - within a few days of Daniel's arrival, neither of our computers were working! Occasionally one will work for a few days, but never quite long enough for me to write.

So, I'm writing this up now - while I'm at school and will type it up the next time I find a computer. (Sunday: Currently one of our computers is working and we've also borrowed a friends).

One of my teachers was absent today (found out 5 minutes after my class with her was supposed to start), so I spent a bit of time practising my address. Interesting order: postcode, city, area (like state), street block, apartment number. Practising the kanji is more difficult, but at least I understand it a little better now.

(Incidently my teacher had a headache, but only had half a day off! She still wasn't well when she arrived at 12:30, but felt that she didn't have a choice. They don't call in relief teachers and the students just have individual study time.)

The weather is really nice at the moment - sunny days, but not hot (according to Naomi, very humid according to Daniel) and cooling off during the evening.

School has been going well - I'm getting to know the teachers and what they want me to do. Some of the highlights have been the special education classes. They are very enthusiastic and the classes have been lots of fun. I have been able to give a lot of suggestions for the classes and ususally run most of it. The kids are also getting to know me (I have lunch with them on Fridays) although some of them still speak fast Japanese to me and are surprised when I don't understand. At least now I know what words they know and can use them in conversation.

I've also had some fun with the year 9 classes. In their textbook was a story about cross-cultural incidents and my teacher asked to me share one of my own with the class. So, I told the story of wearing my outside shoes inside at a school. Although it was rather challenging for them a few of them understood it well.

The year 8 classes on the other hand, tend to be a little more frustrating - I think year 8 kids are the same in every country! But the textbook really doesn't help - the dialogue we were working on this week went something like this:

A: Did you watch Harahara Times last night?
B: Yes, I did. Did you?
A: Yes. It was so exciting!
B: Really? It was boring to me.

They then had to practise this with each other, although could change the TV show and the adjectives.