First Day at Ureshino High School

How can I explain?
at my new school--
eating yesterday's rice.

Despite mixed emotions (nervousness, anticipation, exhaustion, exhilaration), my first day went very well. I might have lost my voice doing three self-introduction lessons back-to-back, though-- and the irony is my teacher's feedback was "next time, more English, and speak louder."

Yep, I'm definitely going to need voice lessons.

And, yep, I'm an English teacher using too much Japanese. Uh-oh. I'm going to have to start forgetting Japanese, and quick-- I'm already thinking in Japanese. I walked around the corner to see three students huddled together, and I was like, あっ、相談中、ね？ Then I did a back-take, and tried to think it again in English, and it came out as a garbled, "Oh, the teachers are having a huddled conversation thingy... Eegads, I'm thinking in Japanese!"


Ureshino is a small village up in the mountains of Saga. It is in a little bowl-like valley, with bamboo-covered mountains ringing it on all sides. The town is gorgeous. It is also tiny.
The school itself is rather pretty. Most Japanese schools look something like a prison (something like this), and while Ureshino's got the white-stucco-prison look, the building itself is rather new and clean, and the white-walled inner courtyard is very peaceful, with a Japanese-style pine-tree garden and paths and an air-bridge across the courtyard (I LOVE those!). The only nasty surprise was all the stuff in my desk-- I mean, c'mon, toilet paper and an old broken comb? And there were piles of papers that weren't English related, and I wasn't sure what to do with them except leave them stacked neatly in the corner of my desk and hope that eventually they wing their way away.

The student body of Ureshino High School is about 3/4 girls. It used to be a girl's school, and is still involved in "girly" pursuits, like art, sewing, cooking, and similar subjects. It is a lower-end school, so a lot of my students aren't academically strong. I even have the lowest of the low English speakers, the LL class (Language Learning, maybe?), which are the 6 failing students, who are so anti-school they won't even speak in Japanese. My teacher told me to expect students that were like "dead bodies." ;) But, guess what? I went in and told them that my ancient kitty has no teeth (but is still adorable), and that my dad was bald, which is why he wears a hat a lot, and they laughed and laughed and listened intently. I think I won them over to the dark side. >:}


P.S. Sorry, Dad.