1 month now...!

Yup, I have been in Japan for a month now! Well, a month and 2 days to be exact. =)
It somehow seems like a loooong time! I guess I've done many things...? How am I? so far so good I guess. I do miss things at home...and feel strange from time to time. I think I'm still adjusting my life here. I guess I'm just not a very social person (Haaaa....anti-social?..hmmm..) Well...getting there..getting there. =)
As of school, I'm enjoying it so far! Yes, there are a lot of repeating. For example, I've done my self-intro for more than 10 times now. It can get a bit boring from time to time, but I'm always seeing different groups of students! I do enjoy working with the students so far. Some of them are so funny!! =P Haha, I finally remember the 3 girls who always come talk to me! They even thought of ways for me to remember their names and their classes...XD so 2 of them are Rina, and the other cute girl is Saki (yes, I think she is cute~ hehe..) One of the Rina's is in 3-7, the other one is in 3-2, and Saki is in 3-5. Saki was like.."7-2=5"!!! They attempted to get me to remember their last names....hmmmm...didn't happen. Haaa...add to the 3, another girl joint the group. Her name is Jurina. Whenever I see them in the hallway, they will test me on their names...XD There are just soooooo many students in the school that I can really only remember a handful of them.

Oh, I really enjoy the special ed class too! When I was in that class, I was thinking maybe I can do that when I go back to Canada! They are innocent bunch of kids. =) One little girl, Juno, always likes to go to the teacher's room and say "hello joyce sensei~"...then she usually starts to speak Japanese to me....haha Whenever I ask "how are you?" to her, she would say "I am happy!" as simple as that. =) well, today, she said "I am hungry"...XD

Ohoh, there are 2 grade 8 boys who would come to the office everyday and say "it's time to clean up"... Apparently I've been assigned to clean a section of the school with the students. On the first day when they came and got me to do clean up, we used about 3 min....standing outside of the teacher's room...to figure out what exactly what he wanted me to do. Since I have very limited Japanese and they have limited English, it was sort of like a chicken is talking to a duck..haa After a few days, it has become a daily routine. We would chat every time we walk upstairs to the place where we had to clean. It was a pretty scene. =) One of the guys is pretty good in kendo. Haaaa, maybe I'll get him to teach me one day...hehe..! =)

Yay, I'm finally eating lunch with the students. The first day eating with the 1-1 class was awkward! The boy sitting right beside was TOTALLY ignoring me....XD and the girl who was sitting right in front of me felt awkward because she didn't know what to say to me. I started by asking things like "what's your name? how are you?"
haaaaa..and they got scared...XD The boy beside looked at me for 2 seconds, then turned back to his friends and continued to chat...haa.. Oh well, first day... Things are getting better. I eat with a different class everyday. Eating with the other classes has been quite fun. Many of them are like "hello Joyce sensei!" We would use simple English to chat.....and those students with stronger English would translate for the others (usually girls translating for the boys...XD) Well, I actually haven't even taught all the 1 nensei's. Some of them would try to think of things to ask me!

I actually really like how students would eat lunch together, start to eat lunch together, take turns to serve lunch, finish lunch together. This kind of "activity" can really build team spirit. I love it! Too bad it's not like that in Canada. I'm guessing it's similar in Taiwan eh? Too bad I wasn't raised in that kind of environment. I love teamwork. =) good teamwork. After each student got his/her lunch, everyone will wait until everyone is seated. One person in the class will say something...that I have yet to understand..., then everyone will put their hands together...and say "itadakimasu~~" It's cool!! After that, then the students can either put some of their food back (if it's too much) or get extra. The homeroom teacher would say what they have left so that the students who want extra would help themselves. From the last few days eating with the students, if someone doesn't like to eat something, either another classmate will help him/her to finish it, or s/he would just eat it (unless there's a lot of something s/he doesn't like..haha) I like how they are mostly willing to help each other. Today, the kid who sat beside me asked if I like milk. I said not really, and he said no too. However, he still finished his milk. I wasn't going to drink the milk, but since a student who didn't like milk drank it, so I drank it too. Wow....full fat unpasterized milk... By the way, school lunch is BIG! It's interesting how they want to make school lunch healthy, but there's deep fried food like.....5 out of the 7 meals i've had... Here's a picture of a school lunch. I would say it's one of the "healthier" ones..just to give u an idea. =) Don't get me wrong! I think they're tasty actually..hehe



I like being with the students so far. =)

Haaa, I think teachers here have sooooo much other stuff to do that planning lessons may be their very last thing to do. On Monday, I asked one of my JTE if he would like me to prepare anything for the class tomorrow. His reaction was telling me that he hadn't even thought of his classes. Well, he asked me to prepare some sort of ice breaking game and a writing activity using "want to". The next day (the day of the classes), we really couldn't figure out the writing activity, so we whipped up a plan literally 5 min before class started. After the ice breaking game, we had the students do some sort of skit from the book. My JTE and I first modelled the skit (with emotion and stuff..), then the students were practicing it. It was definitely effective to model the skit beforehand because the different emotion got the students excited...(Haaaa...I was an old woman and a man..haa, so I had to use different kinds of voice. The students LOLed.....haaa) It was fun.


Errrrr....emtion roller coaster.... I'm probably still getting used to this place and this life. I would occassionally feel like I don't really belong here...ugh...that emptiness. I would sometimes feeel sooo bad that I want to cry. (Haaaa..that just happened like..yesterday in school!) Yes, God is always by my side. God is never changing. There is nothing to fear. =) I am really really thankful to have friends back home...or in hk who we could chat. No matter what we chat about, just having someone who truly cares for me is just...heart warming. Thanks for those who would listen...thanks for those who would just..be there. =) I am blessed. No matter what, I believe God will give me the best!...even when things don't seem to be as good as they could be.

Ok, time for another pudding. Sigh....bad bad bad bad......I think pudding is what I constantly will have in my fridge............bad sign.

Wow..this is looooooong.. In this stage, there are just so many interesting things..hehe =)

Suddenly find this song encouraging~ enjoy!



See you again my friends. Cheers~ =)