Here I am, on the eve of another three-day weekend, this time due to the Autumn Equinox, which happens to be a Japanese national holiday. For those of you who don't know, the equinox marks the first day of fall, when night and day are nearly the same length. I can really feel the changes around here. Darkness has already begun to set in by the time I get home. The weather is noticeably cooler, too; air conditioner use has decreased dramatically, both at school and at home. How strange to think that October is just around the corner. Classes will be starting back at UW soon.
I taught my first wild group of kids today, a third-year class. There was an interesting guy who talked through probably 70 percent of the class--often very loudly. He'd done the classic trick of drawing eyes on his eyelids so that it looked like his eyes were open when he was spacing out. Anyway, it was interesting to see. They don't kick kids like that out of class here, they just proceed as normal. But while the rebelliousness is much more overt on one level, it's much less threatening in that there isn't as much bite to it... Anyway, the primary teacher had things pretty well in control, despite contrary appearances.
My other two classes of the day were quite sweet and very attentive--first years, the both of them. The kids were excited to raise their hands and even more excited to play janken (aka rock paper scissors) with me to decide who would go first during their practice dialogues. My JTE got a kick out of having me speak Italian for them. Good times.
So, how am I going to spend my three-day weekend? Studying. Writing. Reading. It's like I'm still in school, huh? I registered for the GRE the other day--October 22nd is my day of reckoning. It also means that I'll be going to Tokyo at least four times in the next month or so, which should be quite an adventure.
Time for some pointless TV.
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