Ramblings of a tired ALT

Well a lot has happened in the last week and a half! Let me start with my biggest observations of late, and they are the hygiene conundrum! The week before last I went to another school for a demonstration lesson. An English teacher from my school accompanied me. We were told that there were several students with the flu at that school and to take care. So when we came back to our school after the meeting the teacher told me to wash my hands and 'gargle' before coming into the school. Which we proceeded to do...with only water. Hmm. I was very confused on this - how is this to help preventing the spread of germs?! Also there was an incident where two kids got into a fight, one pushed another one through a window, the injured one walked all the way down the hallway to the teacher's room dripping blood everywhere. This was later cleaned up by the teachers with...toilet paper and rags used to clean the floor. A little water, but no cleaning agent, no gloves, no biohazard bag, nothing. Hm. Interesting. This felt like a contradiction when you think about how everyone brushes their teeth after lunch every day and how you have to wash your hands before lunch. I am thinking it has more to do with the social need to 'not be offensive' rather than actually worrying about hygiene. Any thoughts? These perplexing incidents have been on my mind often since they happened!

Typhoon Melor came and went, with a lot of hullabaloo and then little actual damage. School was cancelled for one day in several schools in nearby cities, but teachers still had to go to school. Jon and I spent the day being the most productive we have been since we started work! I made a Halloween game for the kids to play and got creative planning Jon's birthday. Jon made several activities and worksheets for the kids. The days leading up to the typhoon were rainy, windy and downright dreary. The day the typhoon actually hit, however, we experienced almost no rain and only medium windgusts. The sky ranged from sunny, to kind of menacing looking, but no big weather really hit us on that day.

We have definitely been enjoying our surroundings: last week on the 9th, the teachers from the grade block I sit in (2nd grade teachers) decided to go out for dinner and invited me to come along with. Jon also was invited and we experienced a wonderful night of 'Japlish', tasted a five course 'Italian' meal and got to know some of the teachers from my school a lot better. We learned some things about Japan and some of the teachers even suggested that we get married here, in traditional Japanese outfits! :) There is one teacher in particular that is also new to the school starting in September like me, who has been especially kind and forthcoming. I am lucky enough to sit across from her in the teacher's room and she tries to speak English as I try my broken Japanese. She and her fiance picked Jon and I up and drove us to the restaurant and dropped us off. She also offered to pick us up for the paragliding adventure I had planned for Jon for his birthday! Michiyo and Yukioshi (the math teacher and her fiance) have been so kind, and I have a feeling they will become great friends.

Last weekend we visited some local tourist spots: we went to Bannaji temple, Orihime shrine and the Ashikaga gakko. The gakko is the oldest educational facility in Japan, and all three places were very nice to see. Orihime shrine is located on a hill that overlooks the city: the view was almost better than the actual site! It is so nice living in a city that you can bike almost everywhere to in a relatively short amount of time!

Last week on Monday was the 'Sports Festival' holiday. So there was no school and everyone was expected to go out and be sporty! We did our best to accomodate the holiday and enjoyed running and working out in the city. It has been beautiful ever since the typhoon - low 70s and sunny most days.

Jon's birthday was on Thursday and his mom and sister were wonderful and put together a care package for the event - his favorite cookies as well as some things to help us along in Japanese knowledge as well as some movies in English :) Friday we went to a sushi restaurant to celebrate - you can't beat sushi plates for $1!

Next week will be filled with Halloween lessons and games and on Thursday we will be judges in the English speech competition. Stay tuned!