Monday again!

Last week of summer holidays (for the students at least) before school starts on Friday!!! Exciting to think that by next week there’ll be kids running around the school. Woke up at 7:15am this morning, ate congee for breakfast, and set off at 8:00am. Now that I’ve cycled to school so many times the route has become familiar to me and I can get there easily!

The staffroom was quite full today with most of the teachers present. There was a lot of activity as school is starting this Friday (even if it’s only the opening ceremony!). The teachers had a meeting from 9:00am till 11:00am but I didn't have to attend that, so I finished my English Board and just sat around studying Japanese and editing videos. I have finally reached the point of having not much to do, so it’s the time to bring out Japanese studying and my own work to keep me busy!

For lunch today the school had organized takeaway from a nearby udon shop. The vice principal had very kindly asked me what I would like to order on Friday, so I knew not to buy any lunch at the convenience store today. I ordered the mushroom udon set, where the noodles came separate from the soup and you dipped it in! A lot of the teachers ordered curry udon and it was a huge serving! After lunch I had the meeting with my JTE (the teacher in charge of English for Grades 4 to 6) about the first week’s lessons. It was great to finally do some “official” work. The lesson planning went smoothly and rather easily, as it was just going to be my self-intro section, and some games to do revision of what they learnt last semester. I had spent my days at school planning lessons and thinking of games, so I just let my JTE pick the games/activities she liked from my plans, and we went with those. I will already have my first lesson this Friday!! I thought it was just the opening ceremony and then that’s it, but lessons start already from 3rd period, so I will meet one class of 5th graders this Friday yay!

I also received the form to arrange for automatic payment from my bank account for the school lunch. Until that’s all set up, I can still pay just at the convenience store. There was another staff meeting at 13:30, but again I didn’t have to go to this one so I sat in the staffroom trying to keep busy. The librarian was in the staffroom with me though so I wasn’t alone! They let me off early today at 15:00 since they were having the staff meeting. I went to the store to pick up some things on the way back from school, and then went straight home to rest and hopefully my cold will get better soon!!!