Wednesday Errands

Whew, classes have begun.

The first year students are heading off to Orientation Camp in Miki tomorrow, so I have less than a full schedule this week, but it has been nice to get a few powerpoints and classes in so far :)

I did have a little moment earlier today when I showed a colleague a picture of when I first got here in 2006 (part of my PPT) and her response was, "WOW, you look so YOUNG!" This was followed by a student thinking I was 30 (ok, his friend thought I was 22... but seriously?) and another colleague commenting on how different I look from my high school sports pictures (because I looked so young then). Hmm. Maybe I shouldn't have had that coffee at girls night in Kobe last night (was up until 3... should know better and had the bags under my eyes to prove it)... I hope. I'm just going to pretend it's the shorter hair and leave it at that.

After school, I met the older kids in the ESS group to watch some comedy sketches briefly before our staff meeting. I asked if they had any requests for activities at our first meeting last week and they said they'd like to learn more about American humor (sometimes perplexing in Japan) so now watching Japanese comedy videos and then American ones to compare. I thought it would be funny to show them the "joke expert" clip from the BORAT movie ("NOT!"), but that would probably confuse them more (and is not exactly an appropriate movie to show to high school students). I am really pumped about this project, though, particularly because they requested it and are really interested. I was thinking about starting withpopular YouTube videos, the Simpsons or America's Funniest Home Videos )since Full House is popular and they all know Bob Sagget), but there are a lot of directions I could take it and I'm looking forward to seeing how the girls react.

I also had a group of 5 first years ask if they could join the English club after class today (in addition to the second years that showed up this year), which means we're going to have a big group. It's good to see the program growing and that also means we'll be able to do more big activities. I honestly didn't think we'd get many people after our presentation at the Club Activities Information Fair last week, but you never know. Our first big party is next week (making cookies and dying easter eggs... hey, it's still cool and I have dye leftover) so I'll let you know how it goes.

Other than that, I ran a lot of errands today (closing a bank account, doing other things at my main bank and heading to the doc), all of which I was sort of surprised to be able to manage on my own. Granted, I looked up all the vocabulary I really needed before I attempted to go anywhere (especially for the doctor's office), but I was pretty impressed by how smoothly it all went without a Japanese friend to help translate. Not my first solo trip to the doc here (or to the post office), but the forms (or papers full of kanji) and questions (in Japanese) can be pretty intimidating...

Anyways, I just got back from a LOST night at Clam's a bit ago and think I'm going to head to bed a bit earlier. Hope you're having a lovely week and more soon. Night!