The days are getting longer

I didn’t have class till 4th period today so I could get a late start. But it didn’t really turn out to be that late of a start since the sun came up early and it got too hot for me and I had to wake up early. I still got enough sleep to get me through the day, but it would have been better to get a bit more sleep. I had time to take my time today though. I sat and had breakfast and just chilled at home for a little bit. My sister came home from the Key Club convention and she was stoked about it. I’m glad that things turned out good for her in the end. She’s had a rough time being District Treasurer, but she felt accomplished that the Dues Increased had passed. Something that didn’t really need to happen, but did because she pushed for it and the district believed in her. She also did a great job with the Penny wars even though she didn’t think that it was good. I would like to point out that it’s not the amount that makes a difference it’s the effort. Any donation is better than no donation and she did a good job mobilizing the district to raise tens of thousands of dollars for it. Anyways, it was nice for her to reflect on her year and that my mom and sister got to go to convention too. So my mom was finally able to see what this whole Key Club thing is all about and why my sister and I were so passionate about it.

Anyways, I wasn’t in a rush to get to work which is something quite odd, but a nice change of pace. It was really weird going to work today too. I mean when I was going to work, everything seemed shut down and as if it were a holiday or something. No one was out on the streets, the trains weren’t packed, and the stores were closed. But it turned out that it must have been my imagination because there was school today. It was an interesting day to say the least. One of the new teachers finally returned only to tell me that she just quit. It wasn’t really a shock because rumors have been spreading all week about it. Although, it did affect me because I was looking forward to working with her. She seemed like a nice person, but I can tell that things must have been too tough for her. I can see the eyes of the teacher in front of me faltering too. She’s really one of the most beautiful women I’ve seen in Japan and her eyes don’t lie when she says it’s hard to get used to working at my school. I really agree with her since everyone’s schedule had just changed because one of the new teachers quit. I now have 20 classes and I’ve done about 4 clubs this week which is everyday that I’ve had work. I think that I’m about to drop some of the club activities because it’s too many for me to have to do. There are 4 advisors, but I’m usually the only one available to do it.

For example today, after I had 2 classes it wasn’t so bad. But having to do it so often won’t make it special and is draining my resources to do a good job. The two classes weren’t bad really. The first class was with 9th graders. They were being typical and messing around and not paying too much attention. They understood and enjoyed it, but it didn’t seem as if they cared too much. Oh how I miss my high school days. The 7th graders on the other hand were quite surprising. They had a very high comprehension rate that I’ve seen in all the students I’ve taught. We used complicated English with them and they were able to follow us. So I’m looking forward to working with this class in the future. The new teacher in this class seems nice too, even though we haven’t had the opportunity to speak much. We only teach one class together too. But I’ll have to find the time to build that bridge to be able to talk to her.

I didn’t get home till really late today because I was working on some things after club for the next week’s lessons. I really want to get all my work done early because I know that I’ll get dragged down by many things all year if I start to fall behind. I’m really afraid that will happen, but fortunately things will come to a break during Golden Week. I was thinking about going to China or something, but maybe I will just have dinner at different teacher’s houses. I think that will be a good plan for the week, but maybe I’ll be able to do something else too. Only just starting to think about it, since it’s coming up and some teachers have already invited me to dinner. I really want to get ahead of my classes otherwise I’ll be suffering more later.

It was weird that just about the time I wanted to go to sleep, there was a thunderstorm. That hasn’t happened in a long time, last I remember that happening in Japan was in August of last year. So I just started to update my xanga about that time too.