Today was great, too. I got all these ideas for stuff: my eventual blog/website (I’m very excited about that but I cannot start it until I finish the wedding). Last night/yesterday, I slept for maybe eleven hours. Unplugged America and Japan (the phones), left a message recording explaining why (humorously), and magnetized a sign to the outside of my apartment door, with explanation (that I hadn’t slept in 32 hours) and that I wanted no disturbance. I also got some ideas for more phonics classes. So rock on, sleep! I also got some ideas for gifts for people at home (unfortunately, my usual ideas are stuff that’s not Japanese). For Brian, for example, バットマン: ザ アニメ の シーリーズ. For Jeff, ポータル for ピーシー. For Michelle, 私はわからない. I have a feeling that for the blog that I do make, I’ll be adding entries like these, only editing them for anonymity and secrecy (like the gifts, for example).
I had no English classes today because Yukari was in the hospital visiting her father-in-law. So I was basically at my desk all day, grading stuff and then helping Sayuri and Mari with their English speech contests. I finished grading (what I could of) the 三年生 Unit 2 tests and a workbook. I really want to take my time and give these kids the time of day. I’m learning to read bad handwriting (in Japanese), so that’s cool. It’s encouraging that when students write English badly, they tend to write Japanese badly too. By encouraging, I mean that maybe it’s not that they don’t try at English, maybe it’s just that everything is a struggle for them. Well, that may not SOUND encouraging, but to me, it means that maybe I can help them or do something for them that other people can’t do. I like it when they smile. There are times that I like to crash through the formalities and proprieties of the Japanese culture and be silly at them. Like sometimes when one comes into the office, I’ll starting singing the Spiderman theme song using his/her name, “Madoka, Madoka. Madoka-Mado-Madoka!” Or just singing around them. I think I either freaked out or shocked a student that was alone in the hallway as I was singing, coming down the stairwell. She stopped dead in her tracks with her papers near her mouth, or her hands, I can remember which, and just stared at me. I smiled and continued a little quieter through my stifled laughter.
Point of interest: sometimes there is school on Sundays. In which case, there is no school Monday. So, next Monday, I technically have no school. But I may get called into something at 若草. In which case, I’d be happy to help.
Oh my God. I just discovered… wow. A future warning to myself: When I have on headphones, I can become completely unaware of myself. I was listening to quiet music yesterday on my earphones, here at school. Well, I forgot to stop recording in audacity from much earlier (it had been going on for about 40 minutes). Just now, I was listening to that recording. Not only am I a loud, disgusting eater, but I actually burped out loud as I was typing. Holy crap. I must have not heard myself at all because I cannot remember doing that. At that time, I had been on a mission to finish my weekly report before 5:00pm. So, I was nervously eating and typing emphatically (caught that on “tape,” too). I probably looked and sounded like a pig. I cannot imagine. No one said anything about me burping, but of course they wouldn’t. I can almost remember everyone looking up at me for a moment, and I wonder if it was that moment. Holy crap.
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