Waiting for the bus

Happy February

I thought I would take a break from my habit of not updating or updating with only a picture and single line of text, and instead try to produce something more substantive. I have decided to recontract, and will be staying in Nagasaki for another year. In part, I wanted the chance to approach each experience I`ve had a second time, only presumably more knowledgeable and capable of making an impact this time around.

My December was fantastic. I was teaching upwards of 10-12 classes a week, attended end-of-year parties at both of my schools, and generally enjoying how fast time was moving. At this point I could recall the names of all but 3 or so of the 120 teachers I work with and probably another 100 students for good measure. As part of my effort to get to know as many students as I could, I had been going to a different class everyday for lunch and working to make myself approachable. Then in January I went off to Tokyo, Ibaraki, and Osaka, met my family and friends, including roommates from University andpeople from HSD who I hadn’t seen since 2004,

and returned to Nagasaki refreshed expecting things to still be going strong.

However it seems that was not meant to be. Our third-years (the classes I was teaching the most) have become deluged in entrance exam testing. They took their high school graduation exams towards the end of January, and since then, classes have been essentially cancelled and they spend 10 or so hours a day in the classroom studying for their college entrance exams (which are different for each university). After that, they go to cram school, where they study for another 5-6 hours, before getting home around midnight and studying before they go to bed. There is little room in this process for me, and I have taught a whopping 1 class since the New Year. My day`s alternate between having almost nothing to do (as in today) so I study Japanese or having 100+ practice essays to grade, which usually will take the entire day to complete. During this period its been hard to find time to talk with the other teachers too, as they have all been keeping incredibly busy (to the extent that many of them worked 16+ days straight, including weekends).

Hopefully this month will pass sooner rather than later.

In the meantime I`ve made a number of good friends, who I actually just had over this weekend for a small party. We just sat around played Wii, drank, and ate food. I`m really not sure how we got so close, but now we are almost always sending messages to each other throughout the day, meeting up every weekend and some weekdays, and it has really given me a chance to improve my Japanese.