School Days

The new term has just started, and it's like I'm at a different school (or I'm a different person!) With a new set of teachers, I'm no longer the newest face around. I can really tell the students are so much more comfortable with me (the primary students I work with have just become second year students, so they are no longer the little people on the totem pole!) Also, classes haven't started yet, so there has been a lot of opportunities to just hang out with students. I think my attitude has changed a lot, too. The winter was cold and boring. But now the weather is getting better (I survived the long winter!) and I feel continually more adjusted to my role/position at school. I'm no longer worried so much about what I'm supposed to be doing, because I realized that I really have so much freedom, and can do whatever I want. And I've become a lot more outspoken with students, which has in turn made them a lot more outspoken with me. During the meeting where I made my schedule for spring term, for the first time I became really sad thinking about leaving. I only have a few more months to spend with the students, and that time is split between two schools! Time has truly gone by fast! Oh, it probably also doesn't hurt that a new teacher, who just happens to sit next to me, is a fairly attractive guy my age :) He's student-teaching so he's pretty bored, like me :) We have spent so much time talking that I'm afraid he's gonna get in trouble with the other teachers! I have so much freedom, but I'm not really sure what he's supposed to be doing... We heavily rely on his cell phone dictionary and a pad of paper to communicate, but we can usually eventually understand each other. It's nice, too, because he is different from the other Japanese teachers. He is really honest (maybe only with me, because I am not a Japanese teacher) about being tired or bored. Most of the teachers at school would never admit they were tired, and are always running around like they are so busy. Anyways, so it's nice to be honest with him. Today we had a long discussion about why school lunch is so nasty...it was his first day of school lunch since he was a junior high school student.

In other news, all the second year boys started calling me Amanda yesterday. I have no idea why! I asked many teachers if there is some famous television character named Amanda, but they all said they didn't know about anyone named Amanda. It's fun, though, because it means that a lot of boys who don't usually talk to me are now shouting "Amanda-san" whenever I walk by. The little boy that started it also told me I have laser-beam eyes (he drew a nice picture of my blue, laser-beam eyes). I asked him why he thinks I have laser-beam eyes, and I think it is just because my eyes are blue.

More stories of my new love for students...:) There is a student named Nonoka who always used to practically shudder away from me when I tried to speak with her. It was so awkward for me, because she used to look at me like I was going to attack her! BUT, now she comes up and talks to me! I love talking with her compared to all other students, because I can remember the look on her face when I tried to talk to her before. I have to say, it's a great feeling! Today, another student who is pretty shy and is always hanging out on the outside of the circle, can into the teachers room to ask me if I was coming to volleyball practice! Students are always coming in to the room to ask teachers questions, but they never come and ask to talk to me. It just made my day when she asked me if I was coming (which fortunately, I was!) I'm really going to miss some of these kids when I leave!