First day of class

Today was my first day of class. Actual teaching of actual Japanese students! I had two classes of kids, including one of preschoolers, and three classes of adults today. Surprisingly I wasn't really nervous to get up in front of the class. That is a happy change in my anxieties. I just hoped that my lessons went over well and that the students weren't completely bored. Other than that, all I feel right now is exhausted. I have to get more sleep, get adjusted to Japan time. I go to bed around 1 am and get up at 6 am. Not cool.

Vacation is over. This is no joke. I have lots of work to do every day. I go in to work at noon and stop teaching at 9 five days a week. And while I don't have classes for the entire nine hours, i am working the entire time, working on lesson plans for all of my future classes. I have around fifteen different classes each week, so that is fifteen lesson plans I have to develop each week. That is a lot of work, especially for someone new to the game. Hopefully as I get into the groove it wont take the hours and hours to prepare these lesson plans that is has taken this week. But, I feel the need to over-prepare. Today I taught a lesson and ran out of stuff to do with almost a third of the class left. I had to force the kids to play the last game three times just to fill up the time. I will get the time down as I keep teaching as well. These first few weeks are going to be rough, after that I should be able to really start enjoying my time over here. Right now though, I am just tired. The novelty of being over here is still going strong though. I hope I can get my teaching responsibilities down before the culture shock sets in.

This weekend I am determined to do something touristy, go to a shrine or something. I think I need the help reinforcing that I am in Japan, not just in another city doing another job.

Look what I found in my apartment yesterday!




If you think this cool chess set isn't coming home with me, you don't know Trout.