SD Delegates arrive

Today, I had 5 classes and they were a bit much since I’ve been getting to bed later and sleeping less. It’s getting really cold now about 9 degrees Celsius for a high, which is damn cold. It doesn’t get that cold in San Diego.

The first class started hella early since it was a first period. I had class with 11th grade yuri. I had them finish up their tests. There was one student today that couldn’t do a good job. It was painful to watch her give her speech. After that we worked on the next section. I used the print that I made and gave it to them to practice. The speeches took up a lot of time so we didn’t use the book and most of the students didn’t even bring their books since I hardly use them.

The second class was the 8th grade yuri. They are a good class, but were very distracted today. I’m not sure what it was, but they were all looking out of the window and just not paying too much attention to what was going on. They had to listen to CP talk about her friends that are going to come on Saturday. Then we played the questions and answers game where they go around the room and asking and giving a responding answer with the card that they have. They were able to do it.

The third class of the day was with 10th grade fuji. They needed a lot of help today. It was a bit unbelievable how bad their sense of geography is. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing and seeing as they were writing some of the answers down. I could tell that they weren’t high level at all. They have no sense of what the world looks like or what’s going on outside of Japan.

5th period was with 9th grade kiku. We started something new today. They now have a school made textbook that they will use for the rest of their Junior high school life. The topic today was on shopping and that will be the topic of the test too. We had some of the students model shopping at a store, which the teachers set up as a precursor to when they go to Santa Barbara. Shopping, of course, is something they will spend a great deal of time working on.

6th period was with 9th grade fuji. We followed the example from the last class, but they seemed out of it today. They didn’t do as well as a job as I would have expected from them. They are at a higher level, but just couldn’t comprehend the material today. They weren’t really responsive today either. There was only one student that volunteered to help me out, but she was still reluctant and she’s usually the one who likes to speak English. So this worried me for a little bit.

I stuck around school for a little bit of time and just did various things to keep me busy. I usually spend a lot of time in the Language Laboratory since I can use the laptops at school and other things and just have time for myself. So I was just updating my journals with the laptop there.

Later that evening I went to the Yokohama Navios to meet up with the delegates from the San Diego – Yokohama Sister City Society Exchange. I was supposed to meet up with EK, but like usual he was late. The problem with this was that my cell phone had died so I couldn’t get in contact with him. He was more than one hour late, so I decided to grab dinner before I were to meet up with them. I just went to something quick since they were about to arrive. I ran across the street to McDonalds since it was convenient.

When I finished eating, I went back to the hotel and realized that they had already arrived. So I just walked in and waited for them to finish their orientation meeting in the lobby. I think that it was a good first impression. EK and another one of my friends came about an hour or so late to meet up with us. The orientation meeting was a bit lengthy so their dinner time was cut by a lot. They suggested that we go across the street and have dinner at World Porters, but by the time the orientation meeting was finished, it was closing time for most of the stores.

I went with most of the members that I already knew since I met them in March when I went back to San Diego for spring break. We took their group to many places, but ended up at the Landmark Tower on the food floor and got okonomiyaki there. It was reasonably priced for them and it was a good experience for their first meal in Japan. I think that they enjoyed it, but I wasn’t hungry since I got something to eat while I was waiting for them to arrive. After that we took them back to their hotel and left for home.