Raining Season-It's serious...

At first, they told me June through July is raining season.  So I thought, oh, no big deal.  Then I found out, they were not kidding.  Thankfully, I like rain, a lot, because it's reflective.  However, it rained heavily from 7am-8pm yesterday.  Full out pour for 13 hours... that's amazing. 
During the week, we begin class every time with "good morning class...how are you today...what day is it today...what is the date today...what's the weather like today..."  This routine is good because it's a simple warm up with answers that changes daily.  The morning classes always respond with "I'm fine.  I'm hungry.  I'm tired.  I'm sleepy..." and the afternoon classes respond with "I'm fine.  I'm okay.  I'm tired."
 
Hilarious.

I finally decided to shock them one morning and told them I was "super happy!"  Immediately their eyes widened because I told them "I love the rain!"  The students looked pretty confused, but at least it caught them unaware. 


Here is a typical schedule every day...
Wake up around 6am
Leave around 7am
Get to school at 8am and sign in (a little stamp book to make sure I don't skip)
8:25 is a meeting for all 20 or so teachers
8:30 is homeroom meeting where students are in charge (homeroom president leads)
8:45 First period (I try to go order a bento after this period, 350 yen)
9:45 Second period (if I forget to order, then I'll do it after this period)
10:45 Third period
11:45 Fourth period
12:40 Lunch with homeroom (I sit with students in small groups and we cannot start eating until everyone is there with milk provided by the school.  We put our hands together and say "Itadakimasu!"  (Let's eat!)
1pm Break time (students either hang out, practice their instruments, or go play a sport outside)
1:20 Cleaning time (because there are no Janitors, the school is divided into 6 teams, each team is assigned a different floor/area every day and students clean it.  Teachers...cheer them)
1:40 Fifth period
2:40 Sixth period
3:35 Homeroom meeting
3:50 After school activities (art, music, sports, etc.)
6pm End of school, go home.

It's a nice schedule, but several things that tired me out this week were greetings, speaking English, and stairs.

Greeting is SO important.  The proper greeting is this:
"Hajimemashite.  Watashi wa Ingrid Cho desu.  Amerika kara kimashita.  Indiana Daigaku no gakusei desu.  Watashi no senmon wa ongaku desu.  Dozo yoroshiku onegaishimasu."
It's fine say this, but when you have to say this almost 20 times every day, it's pretty tiring.  It doesn't matter if I already introduced myself to the whole school at the Tuesday assembly, it doesn't matter if I introduced myself to the entire class, as soon as I try to speak with a student, they are so shy and scared that I MUST introduce myself AGAIN personally. 

Speaking English... it makes me super happy to read to all six periods of English class everyday instead of listening to a CD player.  Yet, I've gotten used to five years of music education preparation where we don't talk that much.  As a matter of fact, I try to NOT talk during a band, orchestra, or choir rehearsal.  Then.  I came to Japan  :)  Talking for six hours is soooooooooo hard.  Although this seems weird, but my mouth is so tired from talking all day.

Lastly, stairs, oh my goodness....I'm all for exercise, but four flights of stairs is quite the work out.  Every class is a different floor because each class stays in the same room all day.  I'm getting used to it, but I wish every floor didn't look the same.