I finally have a free second for a bit of an update. I am here at school now doing reports. School closed yesterday for two weeks of summer holidays. I got into an annoying argument about my holidays with my supervisor here at school but it is all solved now. I would say that man is the one main detractor from my job. Teaching with him is never easy and he doesn’t listen to me when I speak. I think that he is like this with other Japanese teachers though so I try not to take it too hard. It’s a pity he is my supervisor though as well as the head of English here considering that the other teachers I work with are of a much high standard. Isn’t that always the way? At any rate, I have already finished half of my reports and it is not quite 9 Am yet so I though I would do a blog to spread out my working time. Mom and I have been extremely busy these days. I have had at least two activities after work everyday and I feel exhausted. We have been doing loads of traveling around, trying to meet everyone as well as say goodbye to everyone who is leaving. We went up to Saku, Nagano city, Matsumoto and down to Kiso. Everyone has been so kind to Mom. This always impresses me. Everywhere we go, people give her gifts or want to take her out while I am at work and show her Japanese culture. If she has time, she will write her own update for the blog but I don’t know if that will get done. I will try not to touch on her stuff in the update in case she gets around to it.
So here is what has been going on with me. I had a fundraiser on Saturday night for our clothing drive to South Africa. We are still getting a load of clothes from everyone and I am growing increasingly nervous about how we will the stuff sent over. We are thinking of asking the city for some cash but I don’t know if they will pony up. I hope to get things sorted when I come back from summer holidays. I am going home from August 3rd to the 15th. It seems very surreal to go on a vacation to your home country. It feels like Japan is my home now for obvious reasons so I don’t know how I will feel coming home. I am excited to see everyone and to do some serious shopping though. Mom and I won’t be coming home on the same flight but we will be coming home on the same day. I will be making a stop over in New York and then coming back to Canada. I know it is a little early but I have already started making my plans for Christmas this year too. I am planning on visiting New Zealand. I think it will be cool. I have met a few people from down that way this year and they have all had great things to say about the place. This past week at school I taught with some guests from New Zealand who were in the elementary schools to show the kids how to spin wool. The presentation was a bit of a surprise because I though I would just be a helper. Instead I was leading the classes like we normally do and presenting New Zealand. I felt like a bit of a fraud presenting on the subject when there was a native resident sitting there. Did you know that the Hokey Pokey is considered a New Zealand dance? This may not be true. The kids asked their usual array of crazy questions such as “Are there white tigers in New Zealand?” and “Do you have schools in New Zealand?”. I will let you research the answers on your own time. I bought two very lovely toques off of the lady as well.
I have been quite busy with private classes this past week as well. I have been taking Mom along as well and getting good conversation mileage out of t to boot! A really strange thing happened in my Tuesday night class. One of my adult students is obviously pregnant, so at the end of the class I asked her when her baby was due. She was so shocked! She asked me “How did you know!?!” I thought she was joking or I had somehow guessed wrong so I told her it was my intuition. (Dictionaries were required). She was completely amazed that I had managed to work this out. She is five months along though! Anyone could see she was pregnant. Apparently Gisela had asked her last week if she was pregnant and she said no. I am not sure if this is inappropriate to ask or what. I asked a lady I work with about this and she said she didn’t think it was inappropriate. I am not sure what happened there but this woman looked stunned. We laughed about it all the way home.
Last night, my private class had a birthday party for me which was very nice. They all gave me presents! I was so surprised. It was really kind of them. They ordered a cake from a French bakery! I didn’t even know we had those here. I took some pictures. I have been given some incredibly horrible pictures of myself lately and I will not be posting them. They are some of the worst shots of me I have seen in a good long time. Not pretty! I don’t know why they would go to the trouble of printing those out for me. Today's pictures are of the fundraiser, all the clothes we have collected, and the New Zealand school visit. I love the expression on the kids faces in these pictures. Chiharu-chan, the little girl at the spinning wheel, seems a bit disconcerted about the whole process. Also the little girl in the yellow tshirt in the group shot doesn't look overly impressed. Everyone else is happily holding up their bit of wool they spun. In the next few days, I will be going to more festivals and celebrating my birthday in Kyoto on Monday. Should be a ball but extremely hot from what I have heard. Also, a happy birthday with to al the July birthday people I know. Happy Birthday Nana! Karen! Yamada Sensei! Enjoy it, I know I will. See you soon in Canada!