First I will need to back-track. Last night, I woke up from a much needed nap after work, and checked my emails. There was one from work "reminding" me about my morning standby assignment the next day. Morning standby is where we need to be at the office by 7am and sit and wait for those dreaded footsteps of someone coming in to tell you that you need to to go out for a substitute teaching assignment. It's basically like a long game of Russian roulette - except there's a chance all of us could end up 'dead' before 10am.
"WHAT?!" If I wasn't awake before, I was definitely awake now. Well, long story short, I had not been informed I was doing morning standby that day, but I got assigned. So I went to bed early-ish in the hope I wouldn't be too tired for the 4:30am start. I spent the next 6 hours laying in bed...not exactly sleeping. Not only was morning standby stressing me out, but also my two Elementary School substitute assignments next week, and a lot of other things.
Well, when the time came I got up and got ready. About 5 minutes before I planned to head out the door I heard that familiar sound of a sudden heavy downpour of rain, which had happened several times through the night. "Of course," I thought. "Why wouldn't there be torrential rain and potentially life threatening bolts of lighting on this lucky morning?" (There had been a few KER-POWs which sound more deadly than the normal low rumble of thunder.)
I made it to the office on time with very wet shoes. Luckily (and unluckily), one of my friends was also on morning standby. I actually met her at my first morning standby when we had a lot of fun chatting and laughing. Until I got called out. Of course. As for today, we had fun time again. And then those dreaded footsteps came, and someone walked into the room holding a bunch of papers.
"Mari-Anna?" I knew it, I just knew it! Always first to get called out. (Okay, so once I was second...still, close enough!). Out of 5 people, it was me. Last to be called in, first to be sent out.
But, here my luck changed. Because instead of receiving the usual Elementary School assignment, which I have very little experience in and requires a lot more work, causing me to stress out immensely, I was given a Junior High School assignment. Yay!! JHS is right up my alley, because that's what I do every day. Also, the school wasn't too far, just a few stops over, which meant I didn't have a long commute back home at the end of the day.
As I was walking from the train station to the school, it started raining again. Hard. I managed to avoid the puddles mostly, but when I had to cross a road which sloped downhill, I found myself facing a "river" of water running down it. So I walked through the river. Then found I needed to walk down that footpath on the side of that road - with the flowing river. By now it was clear my feet and shoes would not have a spec of dry left. So I walked down the river, got to a "valley" in the road, only to find I need to walk up the next hill which also had a river of water flowing down it in the opposite direction. Suffice it to say my shoes and even my skirt were very wet by now.
The school I was assigned to was in Shinjuku. Judging by this school, I am guessing that Shinjuku is kind of a rich area. Either that or they have much more funding. This school looked very shiny and new. The floor boards were polished to perfection. The shoe locker doors were made of glass, not wood. It even had an elevator! And the classrooms had whiteboards...and projectors! I know for a lot of us the whiteboard has been around since our primary school days, but in Japan, every single school I had been to was still using a blackboard. Until now. Fannncy! Also they had an actual running track outside, instead of the usual dirt/sand mixture.
The day went pretty well. I taught 6 half-lessons, most of them were just my own self-introduction with lots of pictures of Australian animals, food and sport. I love doing the self introduction because I get to talk about my two favourite topics: Me and Australia! I always have a lot of fun, and these students responded really well. Despite there being a mix of different personalities, I've found for the most part JHS students are essentially "the same" every school I've been. Which means I can feel at home no matter where I go. This is why it was such a blessing to be sent to a JHS today.
There have been a lot of other blessings too. My friend didn't get sent out today - lucky her! My skirt had dried out by the end of the day and the sun was shining. I found some (English) calligraphy pens which I had been searching for everywhere, at a shop nearby. I was able to go for some post-work-stress-relief karaoke near the station, as I was hoping to do, and had a glorious time. And some bad news I was anticipating actually turned out to be good news.
It's funny how a bad day can turn into a good day :)
"Mari-Anna?" I knew it, I just knew it! Always first to get called out. (Okay, so once I was second...still, close enough!). Out of 5 people, it was me. Last to be called in, first to be sent out.
But, here my luck changed. Because instead of receiving the usual Elementary School assignment, which I have very little experience in and requires a lot more work, causing me to stress out immensely, I was given a Junior High School assignment. Yay!! JHS is right up my alley, because that's what I do every day. Also, the school wasn't too far, just a few stops over, which meant I didn't have a long commute back home at the end of the day.
As I was walking from the train station to the school, it started raining again. Hard. I managed to avoid the puddles mostly, but when I had to cross a road which sloped downhill, I found myself facing a "river" of water running down it. So I walked through the river. Then found I needed to walk down that footpath on the side of that road - with the flowing river. By now it was clear my feet and shoes would not have a spec of dry left. So I walked down the river, got to a "valley" in the road, only to find I need to walk up the next hill which also had a river of water flowing down it in the opposite direction. Suffice it to say my shoes and even my skirt were very wet by now.
The school I was assigned to was in Shinjuku. Judging by this school, I am guessing that Shinjuku is kind of a rich area. Either that or they have much more funding. This school looked very shiny and new. The floor boards were polished to perfection. The shoe locker doors were made of glass, not wood. It even had an elevator! And the classrooms had whiteboards...and projectors! I know for a lot of us the whiteboard has been around since our primary school days, but in Japan, every single school I had been to was still using a blackboard. Until now. Fannncy! Also they had an actual running track outside, instead of the usual dirt/sand mixture.
The day went pretty well. I taught 6 half-lessons, most of them were just my own self-introduction with lots of pictures of Australian animals, food and sport. I love doing the self introduction because I get to talk about my two favourite topics: Me and Australia! I always have a lot of fun, and these students responded really well. Despite there being a mix of different personalities, I've found for the most part JHS students are essentially "the same" every school I've been. Which means I can feel at home no matter where I go. This is why it was such a blessing to be sent to a JHS today.
There have been a lot of other blessings too. My friend didn't get sent out today - lucky her! My skirt had dried out by the end of the day and the sun was shining. I found some (English) calligraphy pens which I had been searching for everywhere, at a shop nearby. I was able to go for some post-work-stress-relief karaoke near the station, as I was hoping to do, and had a glorious time. And some bad news I was anticipating actually turned out to be good news.
It's funny how a bad day can turn into a good day :)
No comments:
Post a Comment