Busy Time

Things have really been getting busy now.

First, I was able to finally go on my first real trip off the island (one that required a plane flight)!! Two of my friends and I spent 2 days in Hokkaido - the northernmost island of Japan. We timed out trip to catch the Yuki Matsuri or Snow Festival. Although we weren't able to go into the surrounding countryside (our hotel was in the middle of Sapporo), we did take a cable car to the top of a nearby mountain; and there was plenty of snow!! In fact, on our first day walking around the city, we found ourselves in a small snowstorm while in the University park. Not only were Ryan and I excited to see "real snow" again, but we were also very entertained watching Briohny's first experience of it.

I'm also being kept busy by the end of the school year. The last classes for the san nensei's were last week and we had a blast. They are taking and retaking their high school entrance exams these last few weeks, so everyone is exhausted and stressed. I wanted to try to help them relax and so I planned classes filled with racing games (competition always wakes them up a bit) and PB&J rewards. It was quite a challenge to make enough mini PB&J sandwiches for over 100 students, but the looks on their faces when they tried it made it all worthwhile. The majority of the students actually liked it! I was expecting the girls to, but was thrilled when the boys did too. There were only a few students who pulled faces or tried to pass it off to their neighbor.

My goal was to beg and plead to have my last English class be uniform-free. I knew it would make the teachers - and students, too, for that matter - uncomfortable, but heck, that's what I'm here for, haha. I thought it would be interesting to have an "American-style" class (the class structure itself is very similar, so no big difference there). Unfortunately, I failed to convince the powers-that-be that a uniform-free classroom was part of my "internationalizing". I came up with a good substitute, though, I think: Hat Day! I'm not sure this tradition is truly an American one, or one localized to schools in Chittenden County, Vermont, but I explained it as an American tradition and ordered my students to bring a hat of their choice to the final class.

You wouldn't think it would be difficult to get a bunch of 14 year olds to wear hats in school - especially since it's a rare opportunity to do something normally prohibited - but I nearly had to staple the hats to their heads! As soon as they had to put them on, they looked painfully uncomfortable and kept slipping them off. A few of the boys acted very American: bringing huge fuzzy animal hats. The majority of the students, though, looked like I had asked them to come to class naked.

In the end, we all had a blast. Some students who I thought hated me came up after class to shake my hand, look me in the eye (gasp!), and tell me they had fun. In fact, many students who didn't seem to like talking to me throughout the year practically chatted my ear off (in a mix of broken English and colloquial Japanese slang). I guess now that the year is over, the pressure is off and it's no longer "uncool" to talk to the ALT. *wink*

Ooops, another meeting. I gotta bounce. Hugs to all...