The last four classes before Amsterdam
I decided to do things different today. I got up really early, well earlier than usual. I looked outside and saw that it wasn’t really raining very hard so I wanted to wear the new suit that I got too see the difference. It’s really nice and I like it. It feels good and I really did feel like a million bucks having it on. It really does boost morale and brings in all things positive. I’m glad to have gotten it and it was great. It just felt great having it on and it fit perfectly actually it was still a little bit big, but I wanted to prepare for when I go back to the U.S. because I know it is inevitable that I gain weight there.
I wanted to go to the bank today to get some Euros and send some dough back to the States in case there is something that goes terribly wrong while I’m in Amsterdam. The thing that really annoyed me was that I got to the bank around 9:15 am, which is only 15 minutes after it opened its doors. I was the first in line for the “foreign” section, which deals with all things banking with other countries. But I couldn’t send money to the U.S. because the rates don’t start till 10am. That sucked for me because I had to wait some 45 minutes before I could even do what I intended to do. I got up early for nothing. I was really sleepy and tired today too. I exchanged some yen to euros though and learned that they have some small bills. It’s very interesting. I hope that 500 Euros will be enough for me for a week. But for some strange reason, I highly doubt that it will be even though that’s around \60,000 at the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ. Much better than the rates I would have gotten according to Google. It had things trading at around \70,000 for a little less than 500 Euros. So I was thinking if I should have gotten another hundred or not. But I think that I’ll just take some yen with me and hope that I won’t have to use it.
I had to wait in line to take care of sending money back to the U.S. because a little line developed while I wasn’t looking. The lady said that everything looks ok and that if there was any problem, she would call me. That is a little bit of a problem for me because I won’t be in the country if she calls. And it would be too late actually. I’m debating whether I should bring plastic money with me or not. I know not many places accept it, but if I’m in a tough jam, I might need to use it. I’m just trying to prepare for the worse. I know things are hella expensive there. I finally finished everything around 10:30am, which only gave me about 10 minutes to get to school, buy and eat breakfast. It really was a bit rushed for me and I wished I could have taken more time to just relax a bit.
The first class today was with 7th grade kiku and we were working on more practice for the recitation contest. We went over the scripts today and did the linking thing between words so they have a more fluent speech. They had time at the end of class to practice their own scripts for the contest and the teachers signed off for them.
The next class was with 8th grade ran and we reviewed the dialogue in the book for asking permission. Then we went over the words for the unscramble activity from last week. They had about five minutes to study and finish it. They did and then we had them use the post its and label the classroom objects.
The 5th period class was with 8th grade yuri and we also did the dialogue for asking permission. We also did the listening comprehension for that. They had a few more words to figure out from the unscramble activity from last week. Then we did the post it activity for the remainder of the class.
The last class of the day was with 11th grade kiku. They had their oral tests to present today. They did fairly well on it too. They were able to adapt to the questions and it turned out well. We finished with plenty of time afterwards we talked a little bit about war and poverty at the end. Then we played hangman, they didn’t know I was giving Bryan Bucks out or they would have guessed more and tried to get an answer, but they knew it and it was quick.
After school I started and finished grading the 11th grade papers and corrected the papers for the Ran class in the same grade level. I was able to get it back to their homeroom teachers before I left for the little break that I have. I wanted to make sure everything was taken care of so I wouldn’t have to worry about it on my trip in Europe.
