Wednesday

Had my first drive in my new car this morning to school! It seriously felt so good. Air con, no hot wind, no more cycling uphill, it’s great! I left home super early at 7:40am, because they close the gate early and I didn't want any misses on my first day in my car! Got there with plenty of time to spare and the principal looked so happy to see me with my car too. A busy day of 5 classes today. Spent the morning (since I arrived early) printing materials for 4th grade.

First two classes of the day with 2nd grade. They were on the “My City” lessons and today was about learning directions (left, right, forward, back). It was pretty simple since we just played a total of 3 games, and at the very least they all remembered “left” and “right” so I guess that’s pretty good. They lasted longer in the games than I thought! I thought it would get too boring (I thought playing Simon says for a long time would get pretty boring, especially since it’s only 4 instructions for them as well) but they liked it and changed it up themselves by having rounds where they had to close their eyes (so they couldn't look at the others and copy what they’re doing!). I spent the 20 minute morning break returning English Corner game sheets and handing out stickers. 2nd grade is probably the most participative – I had a lot of sheets to return and stickers to give to them!

Next class was 4th graders in 4th period. They were also on “My City” but they were focusing on how to say “I like…” and their reasons why they like the place. It was pretty funny because they kept forgetting how to say the place names in English. They would be like “I know the answer! But not in English!”. They really liked the card game though, it got pretty crazy in the room with everyone running around screaming “What place do you like?!”. At least they got the grammar down, now it’s just remembering the vocab!

Lunch today was sweet and sour pork with rice! So good! And a delicious soup with mushroom and seaweed. Lunch was a bit busy today with a kid spilling their food, redistribution of food by the homeroom teacher cause there wasn’t enough, and a grade 3 class also didn't have enough food. Spent the lunchtime drawing pictures for the kids today. All Disney Tsum Tsum requests. It’s actually pretty relaxing to just sit and draw for the whole lunchtime. One thing I’ve noticed at school is how kids walk in the school corridors – they stick to the wall so closely, it’s very cute.

Last classes of the day were with the 5th graders. Today’s lesson was pretty easy though as it was just a few listening activities, and the main event Karuta! The cards were in the kids’ textbooks too so we didn't even have to prepare anything. We made origami pockets together in class though, so they don't lose their alphabet cards. They took longer to cut the cards out of their books than we thought though, so the lesson ended up being 80% prep, and only 20% activities. Oops. At least they liked playing Karuta though. Let’s do better tomorrow! Had a meeting with the 1st grade teachers about next week’s lessons as well. All the junior grades’ teachers have been pretty good with their meetings – they make sure to know what we’re doing in the English lesson, and if they need to help prepare anything.

I received some bills today at school through the BOE envelope (car insurance, luggage postal bill) so I had to go deal with that, as well as going to the City Hall again to get the city stamp for my car parking contract. After school I went to fuel up first! Went to a self service stand cause another ALT living in my area had told me about it (it was cheaper compared to other places) and also because I am so not used to people filling up your car for you! Driving has been pretty smooth here so far, not too many problems. It helps that I have a tiny car so the narrow roads aren’t too scary. Went to the City Hall with no problem, gave my supervisor the parking contract and awesome news! He said he’ll send it by school mail to my school so I don't need to come back to the City Hall to get it – so nice. After that I went to the post office to pay my car insurance. The counters were closed by the time I got there but a lovely staff helped me to do it at the ATM! Yay for another thing checked off my bill list. She also gave me some promotional lollies too! After that I drove to Daiso to pick up some things, and then drove back home. It seriously is so good having a car in Gunma. I now understand why they say you actually really need one.