So I don’t really want to write about today as it pretty much SUCKED! And I’m hoping to just wipe it from my mind, but I think it will be good to get it all down in order to put things into perspective. So I had wanted to get to the internet because I knew that Mum and Dad would be freaking out because it had been a week. Well, not so much did I get to the place, but the other Michelle took me to another Internet café that was way out of the way (that phrase happens to have been some vocabulary for my adult class tonight) and we didn’t get there until like 10, we had both taught until 9, tried to lock up the school together (interesting) and then met some other folks by the station on their way home. So to begin the day, let’s back track. I didn’t sleep well last night. The wind has been going something fierce around here for about a day and a half now. It’s violent and very aggressive. I think there’s something on the wind because there was like a bunch of us who all had nasty and weird dreams last night. I woke up around 4:30 from a horrific dream and felt like there was something in my flat. I read some Psalms and went back to sleep. It wasn’t a sound sleep and I was plagued all night in my dreams. Lots of chasing, lots of violence. I was chased and having to fight for my life all night, sometimes manically. It was pretty awful. So by the time my day started I was out of sorts. I got to school way later than I had hoped to be. We had a meeting that was kind of informative, but I felt really unsure about the rest of my day and would have rather been planning at Katsu. My first class was a playgroup. At first I thought, this isn’t bad. Oh, yeah and before that I had a last minute trial lesson where the kid (3 years) stared at me the whole time and didn’t want to be a part of it. Then he joined the other kids in the playgroup. It was going well for about the first 15 minutes, and then it wasn’t and then they got COMPLETELY out of control and none of them could even hear their mothers and they all just ran around in circles until two of them collided at top speed and there were tears. And then the boss walked in. Oh how fabulous. She approached me right after class and talked to me about how to handle the kids better, I know she was trying to help, but these classes are just not fitting right yet. So then I managed to grab a quick bite because I hadn’t really eaten yet. Then for the class of kids who are doing English Time 3 and I’m convinced none of them should be. They had no comprehension of what I was saying at all. Touch your eyes. Blank stares. What’s this word. Blank stares. It was worse than any retail summer staff had ever been with the blank stares...and that’s saying a lot. Sometimes it has happened that one or two of the kids have the blank stare, but one of the other kids in the class will get it and then help them along. But no, not this class. They range in age from probably 12 down to, my guess would be, 8 or 9. That’s a big jump. And all five of them stared at me. I even said "Is this your text book, the green one?" hoping that maybe I had gotten the text wrong again and they were like 2 levels down. But no, after about a minute of blank stares I took out the book and said "green one, green one?", some more blank stares and I said "Page 21" where they then got out their upper level texts, that are green, and turned to page 21. What the heck!!! The next class wasn’t so bad. It was two girls who are usually in that class and another boy joined them. He didn’t like it very much I don’t think and the girls think I’m crazy, but none of that is anything new. They’re about grade 7 in a very oppressive school system, they can’t be expected to be comfortable in a classroom, no matter who’s teaching. Then I had an adult class. They were sort of intermediate. I really only had only lady to begin with and she and I had a delightful conversation for about a half hour. Then another lady came in late, which is not all that uncommon as people here are busy to the max. The train station tonight on the way home was packed…at 11:30 at night. I actually saw a man fall out of his seat and onto the floor because he had fallen asleep (no pun intended). So this other lady seemed nice enough and we all did some talking. Then I turned to the text because it keeps things grounded and provides structure. I was going well and then the late lady seemed to zone out and into the book. She buried her head in the book and started talking to herself. Okay, maybe she’s just really into it. She got worse and worse and then started laughing to herself and shaking. I concentrated on talking to the other woman who really wanted to learn stuff and picked up the language fairly quickly. So all that even wasn’t so bad. Then I asked them to write 2 sentences. The first lady wrote like 5 using like 4 of the new vocab words (I had asked for 2). We went over them and I pointed out 2 little minor errors. The other lady, I went and sat next to. She was talking to herself again. I asked what sentences do you have? She started to shake her hands and her head and make weird noises and put her hands over her paper, then read them outloud while fighting back tears. She finished reading and by them was totally crying and shaking and talking to herself quietly in Japanese. I told her her sentences were perfect...and let’s move on. Then we moved on to some listening exercises but by then all momentum and focus was lost. I couldn’t even think straight.
So that was my day. My very awful day. And now it’s 1 am and I just finished a quick bowl of rice as ‘dinner’ and I’m going to bed. Tomorrow is long again, with another Kindie class no less, but I also have like 2 classes that I love and the other ones aren’t so so bad.
The bright part to my day was having Michelle invite me out for coffee after school. We hit that internet place and then I fell in love with a fabulous little Japanese boy who helped me fill out a form on-line for internet access at home. I think it was the wrong form...but I guess that we’ll see. Anyway, he was wonderful and so helpful that even if it is wrong and is a total pain, I won’t be able to blame him because he was adorable and so kind. So there, Heidi was right, I did fall in love with a Japanese man, too bad this love is so fleeting. All it will take is someone else to talk English to me and I’ll have forgotten all about Ku---something or other. Kumi---something. Ah, how quickly ephemeral infatuation forgets. That’s almost an oxymoron. Can infatuation be short-lived? Or does the nature of infatuation require that it be prolonged. Can you be obsessed with something for only a day? Or does it mean that if it’s only for a day it’s something else? Just temporarily preoccupied for the day. Or is the essence of infatuation only short lived? Too bad I left my Oxford at Shawnigan.
