Thursday, February 18, 2010

This week...

Sorry it's been a week or so since I posted. I'm really going to try to get back into blogging. Unfortunately no pictures for this post. Sorry!

So, this past week I've been observing K5 and K4 classes. That's 5 year old kindergarten and 4 year old kindergarten. In Japan kindergarten is optional so only private schools offer it. Monday I got to see a normal day in a K5 class (which I will be teaching) and the other days I've been observing Open Houses. Basically that means all the moms and some dads come and watch you teach for a day. They do that about 3-4 times a year depending on the program. It's been fun to meet the kids and see which ones will be in my class next year but also a little boring to watch the same thing over and over. Next week I will begin "practice teaching" and that should be a little more interesting. I've also been busy learning Level 19 and 20 songs right now. I will be teaching Levels 11-20 and each level has 3 poems, 3 chants, 3 stories, and 3 songs... and I have to memorize them all.

Yesterday I officially took my "driving test" in Japan. It was actually pretty good. They drive on the opposite side of the road and the steering wheel is on the opposite side of the car. That didn't bother me but the windshield wipers and blinkers are switched and every time I wanted to turn I would turn on the windshield wipers. Also, everybody here backs into parking spots because the spots are small and there isn't much room to back out into the aisle. We had to practice that and I was pretty bad. I might just be the stupid American who parks front forward. Oh well.

In other news, I now have plans for my spring break. Their spring break is actually the break between each school year and it starts at the end of March. Ally, Logan, Mallory, and I are all going to Krabi, Thailand. I've never heard of it but it sounds cool. It is a tourist town smaller than Phuket (so much cheaper) and it is right on the ocean. We are going to layout, get thai massages and hopefully ride an elephant :).

3 comments:

JENNY said...

Your spring break trip sounds SO cool. Can't wait to hear about it after you get back.

I would be awful at driving in Japan.

Love and miss you.

Topher said...

That is awesome. I've always wanted to ride an elephant. Can you tell it to spray your friends with water from its trunk? It is the ultimate prank.

Jenny would be a terrible driver in Japan. However, I am an excellent ambidextrous driver.

Love and miss you.

Anonymous said...

melanie!! i'm going to be in phuket at the end of march! lets meet at the island between the two... (ya i did go look it up on a map.)