Tuesday

Woke up at 7:10am, had rice and soup for breakfast, then drove to school. I’ll have to wake up earlier tomorrow morning, since everything is a lot slower just having one hand! First up today was 6-2. Yesterday they were close to being quarantined, but then 2 kids came back so their absentee number dropped back down to 3 which is safe. Today’s lesson was really good! It’s probably the most lesson-y lesson I’ve had to date. We did an occupations quiz today where they would ask me “What do you have?” and then “What do you like?” and then guess the job from there. It was pretty good cause everyone was doing the work seriously and writing down the vocab with a lot of care. There were a few kids who I had to repeat the questions and vocab to more, but they got it in the end so I was really happy. 6-1 was also just as good today. We finished with a few minutes to spare so I was able to teach some kids how to say their dream jobs in English. There was one carpenter, one toy designer (!), one bookstore worker (I thought that was adorable), and two manga artists.

Periods 3 & 4 free again so I just read a bit and tried to do some English board work but I hardly made any progress with just one hand so I stopped. Had lunch with 3-1 again today, and we had chocolate chip bread, soup with potatoes, carrots, onions, and my favourite cucumber, corn and cheese salad. Spent the lunch break indoors again. Having a fractured wrist is really inhibiting! Cleaning time was smooth again today, the kids have been really good, and it’s cute because they’re really concerned about my wrist as well. Last classes of the day with 5-2 in periods 5 & 6 and both periods were pretty good! We did the summary test in period 5, and they were all doing it really seriously and quietly. They were all trying their best, and it was just really heartwarming to see. In 6th period we started the new unit which is picture books, and I’m still amazed at how quiet and attentive the kids are when listening to the picture book – and when I say attentive, they’re really giving you their full attention. We read it together a few times, and they were particularly passionate and loud when saying “every day”, so it would be something like “…I’d take him for a walk EVERY DAY!” – it was adorable. We did one round of the card exchange game using animal cards, before reading the book together again one last time. While they were writing up their reflection cards, we got them to think about their own original versions of “My Pet” (the picture book we’re reading) and we definitely got some interesting animals. One kid said shoebill (I had to search this one up cause I’ve never heard of it before!), and another said dragon (haha), and another said he’s going to combine a lion and monkey and snake together to make his own truly original animal! Got off work at 16:10 after having a super speedy meeting with the Grade 2 teachers.

My credit card finally arrived today!!! That means now I can get an ETC card for the toll roads, and I’m also going to switch mobile phone plans since another ALT told me about Line’s SIM, which is so much cheaper than the one I’m currently using, plus it’s the type where it doesn't count your data usage for Facebook, Instagram, and Line! Super good. Headed out again at 19:00 for dinner with a Japanese friend. We went to an 居酒屋 and had a delicious dinner! They were having a special for their sizzling meat and cheese plate, and we also got their jumbo sized dumplings and some yakitori, and they even had some dimsum (prawn dumplings)! We also got some dessert – I got their waffle tree, and my friend got their mascarpone and honey ice cream.