May 2013
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School No.4 Update
Here’s what I think of my current school so far.
School The school itself is relatively small. About 200 students, I think. It’s also relatively new. They renovated it a few years ago. They’ve only finished building the gym last year. The swimming pool still hasn’t been built yet. The school has a wooden interior which makes it feel more welcoming than the typical sterile...
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Visiting My First JHS - School Year 3
Last week, I went to visit my first JHS after school. First time seeing my former students after the start of my third school year. My 2nd-years graduated a couple of months ago. My 1st-years are now the 3rd-years. It’s sad to think that after this school year, I won’t know the students at that school anymore. Sure, I taught some of the 5th & 6th graders but none of them remember...
April 2013
18 posts
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Costco Japan
Today, I wanna talk about Costco in Japan. For those who don’t know what it is, Costco is an American wholesale superstore.
Yesterday, I did only one thing. I went to Costco. That took the whole day. That took seven hours. Four of those hours were just driving there and back. I spent two hours shopping; going up and down the aisles. When I went to check out, I found out that my card had...
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Stamp Card
Today, I had my first lessons (that weren’t self-intro lessons) with the students. God, they’re well-behaved. Haha. I can’t help but laugh to myself. They’re quiet in class; they don’t really chit-chat in class; they pay attention. Here’s the thing that got me — when I passed out worksheets to the students, most of the students actually said “thank...
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ACL Reconstruction 12-Month Check-Up
Today was my 12-month check up for my knee. I know I haven’t been updating at all about my knee the last 9 months. No news is good news, right?!
In general, my knee is good. My replacement ligament has fully healed/grafted and is strong. It’s just that my muscle strength is lacking. I’m still doing rehab. I was supposed to be done with rehab 3-6 months ago. But that’s my...
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Intro Lessons and Generation Gap
I finished all of my self-intro lessons at my JHS within two days this week since it’s a small school. Japan loves to welcome students back to school with exams. So the students have exams after coming back from spring break, summer break, winter break. So the first 15+ minutes of the lessons went to passing back the exams and going through them “quickly”. That left me with 30...
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New School Year (2) Part 2
My school’s entrance ceremony last Wednesday. The upperclassmen and teachers were busy preparing for it the previous day. Setting up the gym, cleaning the school, etc.
They were practicing the ceremony in the morning. As usual, no one bothers to tell the ALT anything. I was surfing on the laptop then realized that no one was in the staff room.
Tip: If the staff room is vacant, and the...
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Pleasant Surprises and New School Year (2)
Two weeks ago, when I was leaving for the city on the start of my spring vacation, I saw two of my former students on the train. I got on the train and happened to look into the other carriage when I saw a student staring at me with a shocked expression. I then realized who it was. I waved back. She then pointed at me to her friend and they started looking at me. After I stowed my things away, I...
March 2013
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End of School Year (2)
After my final lesson with the 1st year class the other day, the rude students left me in a bad mood and ruined my day.
But after school, by chance, I ran into some of my favorite former 6th graders from my favorite elementary school at the local shopping “mall.” They graduated from elementary school that morning. I had to do a double-take when I saw them because they were all wearing...
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Stick A Fork In Me
Finished my last two lessons at this school. Closing ceremony tomorrow and then Spring Break!
Last lesson with the rowdiest 一年生 class and a 二年生 class afterward. My JTE told that 一年生 class that this will be my last lesson with them, some of them cheered when they heard that I’m leaving. While I was giving my sincere final message to the class, the usual suspects were laughing at me and...
Urbanity: Exclusive Video Game Reviews--No Easy... →
shanesatterfield:
There’s a lot of discussion flying around right now regarding IGN’s upcoming exclusive review of BioShock Infinite. Competitors are raising a stink while lots of players are saying it’s a case of sour grapes. The decision on whether to publish exclusive reviews was one of the most challenging I’ve…
Nice to hear someone from inside the industry’s view.
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What Doesn't Kill Me, Makes Me Stronger
I survived!! I know I still technically have lessons and a couple of days left before Spring Break and I change schools. But I survived this school!
Before coming to this school, I was really worried what would happen. How the students would treat me, how I would handle all this craziness.
While I won’t jump up and down in pure excitement that I was placed at this school, I’m glad...
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Graduation Day
Today was graduation day. It was a good day, full of pleasant surprises.
During the graduation ceremony, the students mostly sung the songs (unlike yesterday). They weren’t exactly great nor loud. But at least they sung. They were pretty well-behaved. A few of the delinquents kept talking but weren’t too loud. But that wasn’t the surprise. The underclassmen’s send-off...
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Graduation Practice
This morning, we were practicing for tomorrow’s graduation. It was pretty pathetic. Barely anyone sung the school anthem. For the farewell song, none of the underclassmen sung. I only heard the music teacher and the piano. For the graduation song, some of the graduates sung. I heard something at least. During the practice, two teachers escorted one of the delinquents out of the gym. Only for...
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Good Week
Despite the crazy students, this week has been good.
I only had four lessons this week with the 2nd years, and, for the most part, they were relatively “good”. Most of my lessons were with the 1st and 3rd years. School lunch was good, I had fried shrimp and fried chicken.
On Monday, I finally had dinner with two of my teachers from my Japanese lessons. Dinner went as planned —...
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