my past week and a half has been pretty low-key, sort of the eye of the hurricane, compared to my weekends past, and, the way it's looking, weekends future. last week i actually started teaching in the classroom, and, despite the hours of preparation i put into it (i'm not being facetious, either), it was still pretty fun. there also were a couple of elementary school visits (every thursday), which were pretty low-key...there's no middle ground there, it seems. they either make me really tired by sending me to several consecutive classes, or they don't give me any classes, whereupon i spend my day in front of the computer in the teacher's room playing hearts.
my weekend was both restful and exhausting (mentally the former, physically, the latter). i mainly went to the gym friday, saturday, and sunday, to practice with and watch the boy's basketball team. they ronked all over both the teams they played sunday, mainly because of a 2nd year student who is about 6'1'', and dominates the inside. i've been helping him out, and teaching him some points about how basketball should be played, but he's pretty far advanced...i can hold my own against now, because he, like the majority of his countrymen, has very little meat on his bones, but if he learned to handle the ball and shoot the jump shot, he could go far. the team's got quite a few other skilled players as well, so i hope they do well this year.
from my response to an e-mail from my pastor asking about my daily life here: "at the elementary school, i'm quite the celebrity (for now, at least), and my walking through the halls will provoke exclamations of "grenn-sensei!". i don't usually do any hardcore teaching at the elementary school, mainly just greetings. and i play dodgeball with a class or two (they're pretty vicious...i got my glasses knocked off a couple of weeks ago by a boy no taller than my belly button). at the junior high, i teach at most 4 classes a day, usually less. the classes range from rambunctious (the first years (equiv. to 7th graders)) to subdued and sleepy (the third years). unfortunately, as the japanese students get older, they become less willing to practice their english in the classroom, meaning i basically have to pull teeth to get answers to my questions in the third year classes. after school, it's party time in sanbongi! well, not really. i mainly just go back to my apartment, sleep, read, or go to the town gym to work out. weekends, there are sometimes get-togethers for the jets in my area, so those are fun in that i finally get to speak english uninhibited."
been listening to - the old 97's, radiohead, asian dub foundation, the dismemberment plan, and evanescence.